Infantcide Case at Wolverhampton - Cumberland and Westmorland Newspaper Transcriptions

Carlisle Patriot

December 27th, 1844

Infantcide Case at Wolverhampton

Carlisle Patriot - December 27th, 1844

THE INFANTCIDE CASE
AT WOLVERHAMPTON.
_____

    At the Stafford Assizes, on Thursday, Jane RAILTON, aged 32, single
woman; John SHERRIFF, aged 28, surgeon; and James HILDRETH, aged 38, printer;
persons of respectable appearance, were charged with having at Wolverhampton, on
the 21st October, thrown the dead body of a female infant child, of which
Jane RAILTON had been delivered, into the soil and waters of a privy, for the
purpose of concealing the birth of the said child.

    It will be recollected that Mr. SHERRIFF in this case was charged with
having endeavoured to procure abortion by a painful operation, and from a
child having been found in the soil on the premises of his employer, Mr. QUINTIN,
it is supposed that he had succeeded in his purpose, and that the child in
question was the fruit of his disgraceful attempts.

    On the part of the prisoners three very eloquent and able speeches were
then addressed to the jury, in which the learned counsel urged that the body
found on the premises of Mr. QUINTIN was not sufficiently identified as that
of the child which Miss. RAILTON had been delivered; and that the confession
deposed by Mr. HOGG were presented under circumstances of suspicion, that a
verdict of guilty could not safely be pronounced against either prisoner.

    The conduct of Mr. HOGG, in apprehending each prisoner without a
warrant, and refusing their legal advisers the opportunity of communicating with
them during a close imprisonment of eleven days, whilst they were undergoing a
system of interrogation by the police constable, was also a topic of severe
animadversion on behalf of the defence.

    Mr. Justice COLTMAN went through the evidence with his accustomed care,
and expressed his displeasure at Mr. HOGG having denied the prisoners the
benefit of legal aid during the imprisonment imposed on them previous to
committal.

    The jury retired into an adjoining room, and, after an absence of a
half and hour, returned a verdict of "Not guilty" against each prisoner. Miss.
RAILTON and Mr. HILDRETH were immediately discharged; and the trial of Mr.
SHERRIFF for an attempt to procure an abortion, was appointed for Friday. On
that day he was arraigned accordingly; but Miss RAILTON, who had been summoned
as a witness, did not appear, and in her absence the case could not proceed.

    SHERRIFF was acquitted in consequence; and Miss. RAILTON's recognizances
were estreated.

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