THE MILTON INFANTICIDE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4355, 5 March 1875, Page 3

THE MILTON INFANTICIDE.

Tbe following report of the inquest in the above case is abridged from the Bruce Herald: — . ,-, , An inquest was held on Ineflay, l'ebruary 23, in the Court-house, Milton, before E. H. Carew, Esq., 8.M., and a jury of thirteen, on view of the body of a fn\l-grown female child, found dead in Goodall s Exchange Hotel, Milton, on the previous Saturday. > . . , , The following depositions were taken . Sarah Dawson was a servant at Goodall s Exchange Hotel, Milton, and knew Margaret Collins, who was also a servant at the hotel for a little over two months. Witness and Collins slept in the same rooms in separate beds. On Saturday last, 20th February, Collins cleaned out the dining-room and set the breakfast. She then complained of having a headache, and said she would go and he down. Witness waited at table, and went upstairs about a quarter to eight o'clock. She there saw Margaret Collins kneeling in a spare room, with her head resting on a bed. Witness asked Collins how she was, and she said her head ached very badly. Witness again saw Collins at about half-past eleven o ? clock, kneeling and washing the floor of their bedroom. In reply to witness she said she felt better, and that she had been vomiting. Witness at this time noticed a pair of scissors lying on the washstand at the head of Collins's bed. The scissors seemed stained with blood. Witness saw Collins again, between three and four o'clock, in one of the front bedrooms making a bed. Collins's business was to make all the beds in the house. Collins asked witness if she wanted anything, and witness replied that she was looking for Mrs. Goodall. Witness next saw Collins at about a quarter to five, upstairs in one of the r joms. No conversation took place at the time. Witness went straight to the bedroom occupied by herself aud Collins. In that room witness noticed some stained clothes, and some stains on the floor. The stains were blood, and were near ColhWs bed. Witness also saw suspicious indications in other places. The clothes were under Collins's bed. There was a stained blanket rolled up at the foot of the bed. Witness went for Mrs. Pettigrew, a nurse, because she suspected from what she had seen that something was the matter. Margaret Collins was at this time waiting at the teatable. This would be about a quarter to six o'clock. Witness came back, and Mrs. Pettigrew followed her in about a quarter-of-an-. hour. They went upstairs together to Collins's andwitness'sbedroom. Witnessstoodat the door while Mrs. Pettis,Tew went to the side of Collins's bed and looked at where the stained blanket was, and also turned up the bedding and looked. Witness took no notice of what might have been there, but only at the door about a minute, and went downstairs, accompanied by Mrs. Pettigrew. Collins was then in the kitchen, and Mrs. Goodall called her to speak to her in another room. _ Witness next saw Collins about 8 o'clock in the evening, standing outside the kitchen door leading to the yard. Mrs. Pettigrew was then with Collins. Collins was.' speaking to Mrs. Pettigrew, and wanted witness to ask Mrs. Goodall to let her (Collins) stay for a fortnight or a month. She also said if Mrs. Pettigrew would put it (meaning the child) in the ground it would be kept quiet, and no one would know, and she would soon get married. She said she could not go away to her friends ; they would kill her. Mrs. Pettigrew said she could not do it for a thousand pounds. Witness understood this to refer to burying the child. Mrs. Pettigrew asked Collins if it had been born dead, and Collins said, ",Yes ; it was dead long ago." Mrs. Pettigrew'and witness then left. '. Isabella Pettigrew, a widow, residing in Milton, and getting . her living by acting as a nurse for the sick, remembered last Saturday being in Mr.. Soutter's house, in pursuance of her callin", and being visited about a, quarter to six by Sarah Dawson, the last witness, and asked to go to Goodall's. Witness went there and went, upstairs with Dawson to,.the bedroom where the girl Collins slept. Witness knew Collins's room, and the bed she slept in, because she (witness) occasionally stayed in the house, and was acquainted with it. Collins's was the smaller bed of the two in the room. There was no difficulty in getting into the room. Witness turned up , the mattress of . C. IKW bed at the foot, and saw'a'baby's face. Witness could not say if it was'alive'pr dead. She turned down the mattress at, : orice, and •went away and told Mrs. Goodall, and went to Soutter's. ,•,.•'. The Court : Do you think, it was a safo thin" to put the mattress down on the child's -' Witness : Well, I just looked and put;it r down, and went away quick. . . . ■■•■.. ■ Examination resumed :,.I. took notice of ' nothin" in the room ;.I turned away quick.' _ , To the Court : I only saw the face of the baby. I only lifted the corner of the mattress, and uncovered no. more'. 'l'saw no : clothes' under the mattress/ I formed no opinion as'to whether the baby was' alivV.br dead. . Had it' been alive, I do not know; if it, would have endangered its life to "put,the'mattress down ; . as I dfd. I am accustomed to attending cases,, . as a midwife. " ~,. ..• , ' ■ : To Mr. Taylor: After turning down the, , mattress on the body,' it never occurred to me to go back and see if it .was alive. I am very .sorry I saw it at all.'■',T got a fright, and, went away again. Though I have had experience in confinements, I never saw a thing like! that—a baby under a mattress., ,; ;_ Elizabeth Goodall, described,'as " a girl -about : twelve, years of age,", gave some unimportant evidence." ,r, i;,, •-.. ,',•', Janet Goodall.. deposed.;that; she was, the wife of Jaines Goodall, proprietor. pf f the Ex--change Hotel. She had a' servant in,her employ named Margaret Collins'.."'.'Oh Saturday, last witness saw., Collins for .'.'the first-time In j the day about three'or four o'clock in, the' -afternoon. , Witness aftewards .saw,her serving', 'the table at tea-time, and • afterwards at.six -or..' seven o'clock, when the second .table, was_, served. Witness called her out' to' speak;to", her, in consequence of something she had heard., Witness called her - into her bedroom, and. asked her to tell the •truth—was it true, that she had had a baby ? She said, "No; it is' not," and'that she could . show'witness that it was not near full time a mere nothing. Witness understood it was only a miscar-, riage. Witness said- she would, send for the. police. Francis Mcßean Stewart, a legally qualified medical practitioner, residing in Milton, deposed that he accompanied Sergeant Smyth to Goodall's Hotel on Saturday last about ten o'clock at night. He went upstairs and saw Margaret Collins in the passage, and was told that she was the woman who was said to have had a child. Collins showed witness her room, and preceded him into it. There were marks of blood on the floor. On searching the bed, which Collins pointed out as hers, aud turning up the mattress, witness found a large bundle, on undoing which he saw the body of a fullgrown female child. On examining the body superficially, he found a large gash, in the throat. It was an incised wound, extending right across the throat. It was ljin. in length. The child was dead when witness first saw it. Might have been from six to twelve hours dead, in his opinion. The placenta was in the bundle with the child. There was a pair of scissors in the room, by which the wound might have been caused. The scissors was like that produced. The scissors has on it Btains of what appears to be blood. The umbilical cord had been cut, and a scissors would be the most natural instrument to use for the purpose. This would account for the stains on tho scissors. Margaret Collins seemed very strong, but a : littlo agitated. From her appearance then witness would not have thought that she had been recently confined. It had since come , within his knowledge as a medical man that

she had been recently confined. From witness's examination he believed the child to have been born alive, and that the cause of death was the wound severing the windpipe and injuring the right carotid artery. Such a wound could not have been caused accidentally during delivery, nor did witness think it could have been clone whilst severing the umbilical cord. A scissors would have been a probable instrument with which the wound might have been inflicted ; also a sharp-knife. The wound seemed to have been made by no less than eight cuts before it was completed, and those cuts from left to right. Neither end of the umbilical cord had been tied. > The navel string not -being tied would be likely to cause death,- but in this case death was caused by the wound. The child could not possibly live many seconds after the wiudpipe had been severed. The wound in the neck must have been inflicted during life. James Black, a boarder at Goodall's, gave evidence to the effect that he knew about the matter.

Lin Ward Smyth, Sergeant of Police, Tokomairiro, gave evidence confirmatory of, and mainly a repetition of, that given by the other witnesses.

The jury retired, and were in consultation for over an hour, after which they delivered the following verdict:—"Tho jury are _ of opinion that the child, the subject of this inquest, was born alive, that it, died of the wound in the throat, and that the wound was inflicted by Margaret Collins." This verdict the Coroner received, and the jury thereafter attested, as . one of wilful murder against Margaret Collins.