Supposed Infanticide.

Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4360, 21 December 1882, Page 2

Supposed Infanticide.

THE ADJOURNED INQUEST. Dr Callan deposed to having seen Annie Stackpole to-day, and she is not fit to be out of bed; she might be tit to be out in four days. Sergt."Major Kiely stated—Mr Stackpole, the girl's father, came to him at the station yesterday morning, and said his daughter wished to see him and make a statement. He went to her house about 1 o'clock, and she made a statement to the following effect:—l will be 20 years of age next February, and was up to 12th December employed as laundress at Mr C. Curtis', Pacific Hotel. On the 11th I did a heavy day's washing, and had a headache all day. I was looking oh at the Pinafore performance from the back of the stage until about 10 o'clock. I then went to bed in a room up-stairs, the same that my | sister Mary Jane slept in. I fell asleep, and when I awoke I felt in pain. I was sitting oh the bed for a long time. Mary Jane was iv another bed at the time. I went but to the passage in the house, and down the back stairs to the yard. Felt pains and did not know what was the matter with me. Sat down in the yard and had a baby. The spot is near the dining room, also near the laundry. Fainted, and when I got out of the faint the baby was lying there dead. Then I fainted two or three times again. The baby did not cry. I was then stupefied from pain and cold s and I do not know what occurred,

further than that I crept up the back stairs into the passage, and was falling at the door of the clothes closet when my sister Mary Jane came and caught me> by the arm and took me into the bedroom, and I lay on Mary Jane's bed. Mr Curtis came at the same time, and said, V. What is the matter." I replied, "I do not feel well." I was hardly able to speak. Mary Jane got some brandy and gave it to me. Mary Jane asked me if she would go for my mother; I said, " All right." I did not' tell my mother or Mary Jane what had happened to me. Both asked what was the matter, but I did not tell either of them. I used one or two of the towels. I came home with my mother and sister. I fainted some six or seven times on the way. I was asked by mother and Mary Jane on several occasions before that night as to what was the matter with me. I said there was nothing. My mother asked me if I was pregnant and I said "No." There was no person «ith me when the baby was born. I had no boots on when I bad the baby All this must have occurred after 12 o'clock at night. Mary Jane Stackpole was in attendance but her evidence was not desm-d by the jury. The Coroner then charged the jury. He said the statement of the girl was perfectly credible, and quite consistent with the medical evidence, which wjs to the effect that the child probably lived about fifteen minutes. Her statement did not clear up how the child came into the water, but that was immaterial, for Dr Payne showed that death was caused from hemorrhage, and not through immersion in the water. The jury, after about half an hour's deliberation, xeturned the following verdict :—" That the child came by its death from want of proper attention at birth, through the mother being in a state of inseusibiiity at the time, and no other person being present to render any assistance.