DREADFUL TRAGEDY AT NORWICH HOSPITAL.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 521, 18 February 1876, Page 3

DREADFUL TRAGEDY AT NORWICH HOSPITAL.

{Daily Telegraph , Dec. 14.) Norwich, Monday. The Norfolk and Norwich Hospital was the scene this morning of a fearful tragedy, At an early hour one of the inmates, a labourer, admitted on Saturday, and understood to be suffering from dyspepsia and nervous disorder, symptoms of which he had betrayed on Sunday, escaped from his own room, the Catberine ward, into another, occupied by boys, and there murderously assailed the inmate?. Before he could be restrained he ha<L dashed out the brains of one poor lad with a pair of tongs, and so fearfully injured two others that they died almost immediately, while two more, it Jis feared, cannot recover. The story of this sad affair was narrated officially this morning at the police court, wken the accused, Robert Edwards, was brought up on a charge of murdering three children, named William Martin, John Lacey, and Joseph Colman. Mr Baumgartner stated that the prisoner was admitted as em patient iifto the hospital ou Saturday, on the recommendation of a

I governor, in the ordinary way. He was placed in the Catherine Ward, on the upper floor on the male side—a locality which is notconfined to any particular class of disease. Witness saw Edwards between 8 and 9 o’clock on Saturday evening. He did not make any examination of him, but Edwards asked him to give him something to make him sleep. Witness did not give him anything, but told him to take the medicine which had been already prescribed for him by Dr Bateman. He saw Edwards again on Sunday morning between 10 and 12, and examined him. Edwards appeared to be suffering from nervous disease, and his manner made wit* ness think that he was irritable, but there was nothing to lead him to suppose that he was dangerous. Witness did not see him again until he went his evening round, between 8 and 9 o’clock. He was then quiet in bed, and witness’s attention was not drawn to him specially. At this time all the patients were in bed. Witness was in the ward again a few minutes before 12, and his attention was still not called to Edwards. The nnrse who had charge daring the day of the ward in which he was placed, as well as of wards Nos 5 and 7, was named Kelioe, and an assistant named Norclisse had charge of the same wards during the night. About 4 or 5 o’clock in the morning, nurse Norclisse called the witness up. In consequence of what she said he first looked about the passage and downstairs. He happened to meet another nurse named Hannent, who had charge of other male wards, Nos 2,3, and 4, and he went upstairs. Hearing, however, the voice of a third nurse, named Denmark, who was below in the hall and corridor, he came down again, and met a patient, a lad of 14, who had come from the boys’ ward, No 12, some way off on the ground floor. From what the terrified boy told him, witness went at once to No 12 ward, which consists of two separate rooms, with the foot of a staircase between them, and saw the prisoner, who bad nothing on but his shirt and a small flannel cap.- The prisoner had a pair of tongs in his hand, with which he was striking repeated blows on a boy named Edward Lubbock, nine years of age, who was lying in bed in a corner of the ward. Witness went to the fireplace and took up a poker. Edwards came towards him, and struck several blows at him, which he returned. Ultimately he hit Edwards on the wrist, arm, or hand. The prisoner dropped the tongs in consequence, and witness then closed with him, seized him by the throat, threw him, and kept him down until a porter came. Another man also arrived, and Edwards was then properly secured. There had been three boys in the room, and one of these was the lad who gave the alarm. As soon as witness had given Edwards up to the two porters, he went into the other room, and saw there four boys lying in bed with their heads smashed. The first of these was named William Martin, aged 11. He was then breathing, but died within an hour. The next was John Lacey, aged 10 ; he was quite dead, and his brains were scattered on the pillows and wall. The next was Joseph Colman, aged 11 ; his head and face were smashed to pulp ; and the fourth was Alfred Clarke, aged nine, who had sustained a severe fracture of the skull. The tongs were covered with blood. Dr F. Bateman, one of the physicians of the hospital, stated that he saw Edwards on Saturday, when he was admitted an inpatient. Edwards then stated that he bad been ill for six months, and that he bad suffered from flatulence. Witness prescribed for him accordingly. At this time he considered Edwards’s manner that of a reasonable man ; but symptoms such as those described by the prisoner might coincide with insanity. Edwards was remanded. His manner unmistakably indicated insanity, but he submitted quietly to be removed by two polios constables. 10 P.M. Clarke and Lubbock, the two poor lads who were so cruelly injured in the hospital, still linger. They belong to Norwich and Buxton respectively. Martin, one of the murdered boys, lived at Ryburgh; Colman at Barton, and Lucy at Norwich. It appears that the prisoner was admitted to the hospital on the recommendation of the Rev Mr Canton, of Marsham, but there was, it was said, no suspicion whatever of homicidal tendencies.