Horrible Child Murder.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1637, 17 February 1886, Page 4

Horrible Child Murder.

A horrible child murder was " committed on the 30th January at. a place about three miles from Brisbane. . The ;f olio wring account was telegraphed to the Sydney Daily Telegraph: — tI A young married woman, Mary Newman, was observed piling on bushes to a lire m a back yard by her neighbor, Mrs Burton, who at the time smelled something which resembled the burning of human flesh; She vrent up to the fire and asked Mrs Newman what was. beiris: burnt, and fijot an evasive answer, which aroused her suspicions.. Mrs Burton then picked up astick, and'on turning over the fire, the body of a newly-born infant was ex-posed-half roasted. The legs, .which had been a long time m the fire', w£re burnt to the knees, the head and the arms were charred, but tlie trunk, which was >vrapped m. a cloth, was scarcely injured. Mrs Burton reported thft cii'cu m • • stances to the police, who arrested the woman and conveyed her to the hospital where two doctors examined the dea/3 body, and 1 believe the. child was bom alive. Mrs Newman has not been living with:her husband for some time. Nothing lias since been observed to -indicate mental derangement, but the murderess is still too weak to be brought up before the Bench. Further . particulars are to the effect that the woman fell sick on Friday morninp, and was believed to have been confined an hour later. Mrs Newman affirms that her child was stillborn, and that she kept it until the next morning, and then burnt it to hide her shame. She has three children, and separated from her husband six years ago.".