"BELGIAN" SAUSAGE MYSTERY.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 24 August 1917, Page 1

"BELGIAN" SAUSAGE MYSTERY.

'WARE "HANGIXG-UP" MAKE. Disclosures regarding the manufacture of horse sausage, and the traffic in horseflesh, by Belgian butchers, were made* in the course of the recent trial at the Old Bailey of William Wakefield, 26, carman, and William Dasher, 43, dealer, who were indicted upon three charges of stealing horses and vans and their contents, the property of different owners in North London. According, to the caee for the prosecution, these proceedings' formed a, sequelto a series of losses of valuable horses; in sound and healthy worMhcr condition, £he suggestion, being that they had been stolen for the express purpose of being sla-ughi-teved and dressed, the carcasses being "disposed of to Belgian butchea-s for- human consumption, in the form, either of sausages or as joints, At stables in the occupation of Dasher, at Brewery road, Islington, the police found seven horses' tongues and several sets of harness, which, it,is alleged, had ;been taken from the horses slaughtered there.. Dasher, giving evidence, admitted that his business had been that of "buying up horses, slaughtering, them, and selling the carcasses for sausage meat. Counsel: You have, I believe, two kinds of customers for the meat?-—Yes; one takes the carcass, without the bone; the other with the bone. The one who takes the boneless meat has also ;the. tongues. Are there two sorts of horse sausage?Yes; there is lean horse and fat, or-"hanging-up " horse sausage. What is ''hanging up" horse?—Horsa that is cut up into joints. Evidence was called to support an alibi on behalf of Dasher, the defence of the second prisoner being that he- was merely a paid'servant in charge of the stables. The jury found both men guilty. 'Henry William Phillips (25), who pleaded, guilty to stealing two- horses, the property of the London and South-Westem Railway, was brought up. Counsel said these van robberies had become so frequent of late that transport of goods had been very seriously affected, and the • slaughtering of valuable horses in this way was a grave matter, as the animals could not easily be replaced at the present time. '.;'■' Inspector Xeil proved convictions against each., of the men, who, he ; said, were the associates of a notorious gang - of horse-sbealers. On an average six to eight horses, valued at £BO to £9O apiece, had been stolen weekly, slaughtered, and the meat sold to Belgian butchers. Judge Rentoul said this was one of the worst crimes -that could be committed at the present jtime. when horses were so. much needed for the service of the country. He sentenced Dasher to five years, and each of the other prisoners to three years' penal servitude.