CHILD MURDER AT OAMARU.

Kumara Times, Issue 3130, 15 November 1886, Page 2

CHILD MURDER AT OAMARU.

Oamaeu, November 5.

Agnes Sargeson was charged at the R.M Court today with having murdered her infant on or about the 20th September last. The body, it may be remembered, was found much mutilated in a hole in the garden of the house accused lived in. Accused was defeuded, and pleaded "Not Guilty." The evidence taken showed that the accused was delivered of a female child on the 18th of August last, and that the child was in health when it whs born, but for two or three weeks after it looked very ill, and a neighbour told accused she should obtain medical advice. The accused did so, and thereafter the child appeared to improve. The accused told one of the witnesses that she did not intend to register the birth of the child; she would leave that to the person that adopted it. One witness said the child had been neglected • that it was dirty and wet all over. Previous to the disappearance of the child the accused had asked a peison to write a letter to a Mrs Scott, care of Mr Smith, Meadow Bush, East Taieri. When asked by the neighbours where the child had gone to, accused said the person written to had called and taken it away the previous night, and that it would be better looked after where it had gone to than she could do for it. Accused told one of the witneßß3s that she was a widow, that her husband had been a sailor, but had died in London lately. Some time after the baby was born, accused removed to a two-roomed cottage on the outskirts of the town, and it was from this place the accused said the child had been taken away. The landlord of the house said the accused had borrowed a spade and tomahawk from him and they were put through his fence next morning. The next day accused told her landlord she was goin« to Dnnedio that afternoon. The body of the child was subsequently found in a hole iu the garden along with a quantity of night soil, and presented a shocking appearance, the legs being cut off, and the head and chest much hacked. The evidence given by Detective O'Brien was to the effect that he saw the accused in Dunediu after she I aft Oamaru, and spoke to her. At the Dunediu railway station a Mrs Home spoke to accused, and he hoard accused say, "Yes, it is Tripp's," and aUo, "I am ready to die."