FRIGHTFUL CHILD MURDER.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 4, Issue 172, 5 January 1860, Page 3

FRIGHTFUL CHILD MURDER.

A woman named Sarah Jane- Wiggins,was examined at Worship-street Police-court, before Mr. D’Eynecourt; oh Saturday, relative to a charge of causing the death of a child aged three years. The evidence, &3 far as it went, revealed a system of fiendish cruelty; part of which consisted of tying the child to & bed-post with its head downwards,, and keeping it there during the entire night. The principal witnesses were a female yarned Scott, and the prisoner’s step-daughter, -e - -r" T* Emma Scott said : l am inarrieui .My husband is a labourer, and we lived in the same house as the prisoner. When I first went-tb the house a man was living with her; hisname was James White, and I always -supposed he was her husband and the father, of the child. Be left last Thursday three weeks, and: she has been alone since. I think ho is a groom, and that lie has left to go out of town with the family he is engaged with. The prisoner passed by the name of \yhite up to Wednesday last, when she said it was Sarah Jane Wiggins, and that , she was not married to White. About half-yast eight o’clock on Wednesday I heard prisoner coino down stairs, and saw her pass my . window in a great hurry, almost running. She came back in a quarter of an hour, went up stairs, returned directly, and screamed at the top of the stairs.. . I ...went to my door and asked, “ What is the matter ?"’ £he replied, “ Oh, my little Jemmy ha 3 gone!” I said, “ Oh dear me ! not dead ?”. and she answered, “ Yes; go and see.” I ran. up, and saw the child with its clothes on, lying on the bed. It was quite still'. We both went down stairs, and the doctor enterecLas I was going, out for assistance. It was then about a quarter to nine o’clock. Mr. D’Eyncourt: Have you observed her conduct to the children ?—-Witness: I have often heard heavy slaps, never = seen-them given. Mr. D’Eyncourt: Did you .hear-anything about the child tied?—-Witness’(with some hesitation): Last. Tuesday week-the prisoner told me that during the past; night the child had been relaxed in his inside, and made much mess. /On the next day, Wednesday, she told me' that the child had made'no more dirt, and she did not think he.:-would again, as she had punished him. I askgd, “In what way did you punish him ?” and’ she answered, “ I took him upstairs when the; other children went to bed; 2nd after he .was undressed and had said his prayers, L tied him to the bedstead with his hands fastened down.” I said, “ Oh, Lord, you surely did not keep him there all night ?” and she answered,. “ Yes, I did, until seven o’clock this morning.” (Sensation.) ‘ . Fanny White: . I am nine years of age. "This woman (prisoner) is not my mother. I remember mother dying, but don’t know how long since.

Mr. D’Eyncourt: JEhat is your father ? Witness: A gentleman’s servant; he has left us three weeks last Tuesday. - Mr. D’Eyncourt: Did you ever- beat your brother ?—Witness: Oh no, sir. ‘ -

Mr. D’Eynconrt: Do you know how he came by the bruises on his face ami head Witness: No, sir. y __ '

Mr. D’Eyucourfc: Did you ever soe this woman beat him.?—Witness y She used -to take him up stairs, so I could not see it. i know that she slapped my sister once: Mr. D’Eyncourt: Now tell me the truth, and don’t be afraid. Did you ever see her tic him with a cord.?— W itness : One nignt she tied him with a cord like that f pointing .to a sash-lino attached to a window of the court).

It Was when we went to bed one night, may be a week ago. She tied him to the bedstead with his arms behind him.

Mr. D’Eyeourt: Was he dressed? —Witness : iso, only his iittle “ shimmy” on. Mr. D’Eyricourfc: How long did he stop there ?—Witness: When I awoke the next morning, between six and seven o’clock, he was still there ; he was awake, and still'standing up.

Mr. D’Eyneourt: Dal you Hear Him cry ?f /fitness : No, lie only “ winnicked ’’ a little. I think he was afraid to cry for fear he should be punished more, He seldom cried. I bei lieve she used to beat him on his back. As he was tied he was obliged to stand. I do not think that she beat him that night she tied him up. He wa3 punished when he cried. - Mr. D’Eyncourt: What was he tied up for ? Witness : Because he had been crying for j water all day. Mr. D’Eyncourfc: /That did she do after she tied him up ?—Witness : Site went to bed. She. must have unloosed him while I was downstairs in the morning. Mr. D’Eyncourt: Do you recollect the day before lie died ?—Witness: Yea, sir. When she went out she cut us each a slice of bread and butter. He cried for cake, and I gave him some of my food and tea. Mr. D’Eyncourt: /fhat happened that night—the night before he died ? Do not be frightened. 2-ell me all the truth.—Witness ; ■She took him up and shook him. She tied him up that night in-a different way. lam quite sure of it. I think she stood on the bedstead. (The poor little girl’s attempt to de scribe what had occurred on this occasion was for a considerable period not comprehended. The skeleton of a four-post bedstead was subsequently formed with pens, and she clearly demonstrated, by the aid of a handkerchief doll, the position in which the little sufferer! had been placed,.viz., bound with three or four turns of rope, round the body on the cross piece of the top of the bedstead at the foot.)

She then continued : His back was next to the hoard, and his head hanging down. I heard him “ wiunick” all night nearly; hear her speak to him. Mri D’Eyncourt: When was he taken down ? ■ —Witness: Not when I got up in the morning ; he was still there. I got up at the usual time. When the policeman came I weut up stairs with him, and' saw the little boy lying dead on the bed.. ' : "Mr.- D’Eyncourt: Did you ever see the cord round your brother’s neck?—Witness: I did not sec it - Mr. D’Eyncourt: Do you wish to put any questions to . this child, prisoner ?—Prisoner : No. • '

Mi*. Edward Denis Hucon, .surgeon, of Rich-mond-road; Hackney, said: I have attended the deceased child. Unquestionably its death resulted from violence. I have made a post, morlcm examination. I found the stomach perfectly contracted, and manifestly without food for some time past, although it had been well nourished. The immediate cause of death 1 believe to have been caused by an effusion of blood on the brain. I found marks of a iigature round the head. After some further evidence, the prisoner: was remanded.

Naval Preparations in France.—The Paris correspondent of the Independence Beige says, that the French government have resolved do- construct twenty casemented vessels instead of ten, as was at first contemplated, of the first order for ten vessls six have been completed. Although the sheeting of these vessels is not less than ten centimetres in thickness they are on the whole very light. The government, being apprehensive that the Imperial Foundries could hot supply the whole of these vessels, have given an order to the proprietors of tho Creusot foundries for the manufacture of some. Fifty large steam transports, each capable of containing 3000' men* will be finished in a short time. Preparations for defence are being made along the whole coast. Besides the casemated batteries of which the Nouvelliste of Rouen has recently spoken, the forts of the Mediterranean and the ocean, which have been abandoned fora long time past, are being re-armed. The forts of St. Malo arc also taking in new ordance.

A Sketch of the Growth of Melbourne. —At the time he spoke, 22 years ago from this present year, (I 860), the Yarra rolled its clear waters to the sea through the tmbrukeu solitude of primeval forest, as yet unseen by tho eye of man. Now there stands there a noble city, with crowded wharves, containing with it* suburbs, not less than 120,000 inhabitants. One thousand vessels have laiu at one time, side by side, off the mouth of the little river, and through the low, sandy heads that dost-, the great port towards, the sea, thirteen millions sterling of export are carried away each year by the finest ships in the woild. Here, too. are waterworks constructed at fabulous expence ; a service of steamships, between this and the other great cities of Australia, vyiug in speed and accommodation with the coasting 1 steamers of Great Britain; noble churches, handsome theatres. In short, a great city, which, in- its amazing rapidity of growth, ut- : tcrlry surpasses all human experience.—Geoffrey Ildmlyn, by H. Kingsly. 1

“ Luke Nott had an order for two cows from ' Ahigland one for a nobleman aud the other for the Empress of Russia',* but the royal cow died on the passage, and the worst had to be led to tire palace for inspection. * Why,’asked the Empress, ‘ are three teats so large and one so small?’ ‘lts all correct, please your majesty,’ said the ever-ready Luke, * three for the mills and the little one for the cream.’ : Indeed was the reply, and nothing more was

said. ‘ Hut,’ as Mr Kirby used to remark, I stood..fairly trembling to hear tho fellow teU such a wilful lie. Many had been sent to Siberia for less; and it was all that Mr Kirby himself could once do, even while he basked in the royal sunshine, to persuade the guards that the porter-bottle which burst in his pocket as he was smuggling it into the palace for one of the Princes, was not the prohibited liquor of hated Britain, but only c frisky beer;’ ”