SHOCKING AFFAIR.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2864, 5 September 1895, Page 1

SHOCKING AFFAIR.

Sydney, Sept. 2. Thomas Meredith Sheridan, chemist, and principal of the British Medical Institute, and Edward Thomas, were arrested at the institute rooms in connection with the Woolloomooloo mystery. The detectives discovered that the box had been purchased at the City Warehouse on Saturday morning, [and they traced it to Sheridan's rooms, where it is said a number of instruments were seized which were stained with blood and giviug other indications that they had been used in the performance of an operation. Signs of the recent presence of a decaying body were also fouud. The victim has been identified as Jessie Nicholls, aged 23, au unmarried daughter of a farmer residing at Mulgrove, near Windsor. At the inquest the mother gave evidence that her daughter left home on Tuesday morning with the alleged intention of posting a letter and never returned, and that her later movements were unknown. A man named Sewell and a woman named Sarah Jackson, caretakers of the institute, have been arrested on a charge of complicity. Miss Nicholls had been engaged for two years aud a half to a young farmer, who was the prospective heir to a rich uncle, who threatened to disinherit him if he married the girl. Previous to leaving home she asked to be allowed to visit her friends in Sydney. The mother objected, and hid her clothes to prevent her going. The girl was only dressed in a wrapper and underclothing when she left. Aftei* her disappearance her mother went to her lover, who said that he was responsible for her daughter's condition. She was going to the city to hide her shame. He offered to marry her, but she refused. Mrs Nicholls came to Sydney on Thursday, and ascertained that her daughter had stayed a day with her friends, had procured clothes, and left under the pretence of returning home. An unsuccessful search ended in her reading an account of the finding of the body in today's papers. Sept. 3. The woman Jackson, or Campbell, states that a certain operation was performed ou the girl Nioholls on Tuesday last, and the girl died on Friday. She informed Mr Sheridan, president of the British Medical Institute, who went upstairs to see the body, and then ripped open the abdomen to ascertain, as he said, the cause of death.

The mother of the girl Nicholls is in a Btate of utter collapse, and grave fears are held out for her reason, as her condition is very serious indeed. Sheridan has already served a long sentence for an offence of a similar nature. This was about ten years ago, when he was convicted at Darliughurst Court on a charge of being concerned with an illegal operation, and was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. He has not been out of gool very long, and ocoupied the place in Elizabeth street for a few months only. Judging by the instruments, drugs, and documents found in the place, an illegal medical business of an extensivs nature has been conducted there.

Meredith was charged with murder, and Thomas with being concerned in it; Sewell and Chapman alias Jackson as accessories after the fact. All were remanded for a week.

Sewell confessed to procuring the box and helping to remove the body. Sheridan was identified as the man who hired a buggy at the City Stables shortly before the discovery of the crime.