Murder at Audley Print E-mail
Carlisle Patriot - December 27th, 1844

MURDER AT AUDLEY
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    At Stafford Assizes, on Monday  and Tuesday week, Paul DOWNING, aged 19
and Charles POWYS, aged 17, were tried  for the wilful murder of William
COOPER, at Audley, on the 4th of  August.
 
    It appeared that the deceased  was a sawyer by trade, and resided with
his father, who was under gamekeeper to  Sir T. BOUGHEY, on the baronet's estate
at Audley, about five miles from  Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
 
    He was in the habit of assisting  the gamekeepers in their hazardous
duties, and had on several occasions been  witness against the prisoners for
poaching, and on account of his evidence  DOWNING had lately been imprisoned for
two months, in consequence both prisoners  had sworn to be revenged.
 
    On the 4th August deceased was  at the celebration of the Audley wake at
a public house in the parish. He left  there at half past eleven o'clock, and
went towards home. At twenty minutes  after twelve o'clock the father of the
deceased was disturbed by the report of a  gun, accompanied by a piercing
scream, in the direction of his back door, and on  coming immediately downstairs
discovered the lifeless body of his son stretched  across the threshold, with
marks of blood on the door, the wall, and the ground.  The spot on which the
atrocious cat had be perpetrated was an enclosed yard,  overlooked by no window
from the cottage, and from a well executed model of the  premises produced on
the trial, it was evident that the fatal shot could only  have been fired in
one direction - over a low wall behind an unoccupied dog  kennel, where the
cowardly assassins could be easily concealed from view, and  whence they could,
with unerring certainty, hit their intended  victim.
 
    From this spot footsteps of two  persons corresponding exactly with the
boots of the prisoners, were traced to  the house of POWY's father. Evidence
was adduced to prove that POWY's was in  possession of a gun, and that he had
said he would serve out the deceased. The  most remarkable evidence, however,
was the following: -
 
    On the house of POWY's being  searched, a powder flask recently used was
found, stopped with a piece of blue  paper, a part of which had been torn
hastily away. This led to an inquiry as to  the existence of wadding from the
charge which had caused the  murder.
 
    SHOOKER, the next door  neighbour, who had arrived first to the
assistance of the COOPER family, then  remembered that, on picking up the dead body, a
piece of similar paper was lying  near it. Immediate search was made at the
back door, and trodden between two  bricks of the court yard the blue paper was
discovered, much saturated with rain  on Monday night and the paper was
carfully dried by Mr. HATTON, and not  withstanding the variety of shapes into which
it had been pressed, proved upon  comparison to correspond most accurately
with the paper discovered in the powder  flask.
 
    The prisoner's counsel made an  eloquent appeal in their behalf, and
after a careful summing up by the Learned  Judge, the jury retired for about an
hour, and eventually found both prisoner's  guilty.
 
    The foreman then addressing the  judge said, "So far as mercy can be
shown in a case of murder, we would wish it  to be extended to the present case!"
The learned judge thereupon made a note of  the recommendation, which cannot
be esteemed but a most extraordinary one, in a  case of deliberate and
diabolical murder such as the present, in which it is  impossible to observe one
single paliating or extenuating  circumstance.
 
    His lordship immediately passed  sentence upon both of them. The prisoner
DOWNING, who, throughout the trial  conducted himself in an insolent manner,
laughing in a sarcastic manner at  intervals during the proceedings, here made
a loud protestation of his  innocence, and on being conveyed from the dock,
catching a glimpse of some of  the witnesses, looked at them in a menacing
manner, and shaking his fist poured  forth a volley of threats and execrations
against them.
 
 
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