MAGISTERIAL INVESTIGATION.
COMMITTAL OF THE PRISONER.
On Thursday morning, Lee was conveyed from Winchester gaol to Havant, where he underwent an examination before Major Munday. Mr. R. W. Ford, of the firm of Messrs. H. and R. W. Ford, solicitors, of Portsmouth, attended at the request of the friends of the prisoner, to watch the case on his behalf.
The boy Wyatt was first examined, and repeated the statement he made before the Coroner.
Sarah Jane Neale, the wife of James Neale, deposed: I live at Waterloo. On the morning of the 21st of June I was going from a neighbour’s house, when Mr. Clear asked me if there was any man at home. I said ‟No.” At that moment the prisoner came up and said, ‟I have cut my wife’s throat,” and asked me to take charge of the little boy, who was out in the road. I said, ‟You wicked man, how came you to do such a thing.” I took the child in, and on going out again, I said to him, ‟How could you do it ?” He said, ‟Two men have followed her from Ascot races.” I went in doors and on coming out again, he took some money from his pocket, and said it was no use to him. I took it of him —£2 2s. 5½d. He said, ‟I know I shall be hung; and I don’t wish to live now she is gone.”
Cross-examined by Mr. Ford: I only know prisoner by sight. I know nothing of the terms on which the prisoner and his wife were living.
William Merritt, a boy, repeated the evidence he gave at the coroner’s inquest. He also deposed that he asked the prisoner what he did it for, when he said because his wife had been on so bad. He also said he would have cut his own throat long ago instead of his wife’s, but there was no forgiveness.
In answer to Mr. Ford, witness said Mrs. Neale asked the prisoner if he could cry, and he said ‟No”; just afterwards he burst out crying, but made no reference to his wife.
P.C. Rody Deegan proved taking the prisoner into custody. He caused the body of the woman to be searched, and £2 12s. 6d. was found in her pocket. He took two gold rings from her finger. He searched the floor of the van; there was no blood in it. The step outside was covered with blood. On their way to Havant he said he was quite sure his nephew had to do with his wife the first night of Ascot races.
Cross-examined by Mr. Ford; I had no conversation whatever with the prisoner. He made the last observation voluntarily.
Dr. Ross deposed to being called to see the body of the deceased. Ho saw an extensive wound on the throat, which completely divided the wind pipe, and the blood vessels on the right side, penetrating to the bone. The wound must have caused almost instantaneous death. He observed a second superficial cut on the throat about two inches long, and a third and still smaller wound or scratch.
By Mr. Ford: There was no other mark of violence about her body, and from her dress no evidence of any struggling or fighting.
Samuel Silvester: I keep the ‟Wellington” at Waterloo. I knew the prisoner and his wife. I have known him for years; the deceased only a few months. Between three and four o’clock on Friday, the 20th inst., I was standing outside talking to the bricklayer, when I saw the prisoner. He asked me to go and have a glass of ale with him and I went indoors and drew two glasses of ale. As we were drinking it, he said, I’ve got into trouble about my colt. I left it with Mr. Ayling to keep it, but I have seen it at Petersfield.” He said could swear it was his, and he went to see about it. Mr. Ayling lives at the Brambles close to Waterloo. He returned and said it was all right at Mr. Ayling’s. He said, ‟What should you do.” I said I should apologise. He went away and afterwards returned and said he had been to a place near Petersfield, where he saw the man and apologised. He was gone from 2 o’clock until about 7 or 8 o'clock. After we had the beer he placed his colt in a waste piece of land by the side of my house. My wife was in the bar. He asked her if she would make a glass of port wine and water hot for his wife, who was in the van not well. It was made and placed on the front of the bar. Prisoner said, ‟I wish you would take it out Mrs. Silvester as she is so stomachy she won't take it from me.” My wife said, ‟I don't like to take it out.” I said to my wife, ‟If the woman is ill take it out” and asked what was the matter with her. I said, ‟If you don’t I will.” My wife then took it out. I remained in the bar. My wife came back in minute and said, ‟She has taken the wine.” Prisoner seemed in great way about his colt and left the house in a few minutes. He had been gone to the van half an hour, when he asked my wife to make his wife a little gruel as she did not seem any better. She made her some. We were sitting at the window of my house, and my wife opened the window and spoke to Lee, who was sitting on the footboard of the van. She asked him if she would have some wine in it. I heard him ask his wife, and she said ‟no;” my wife handed the gruel to the prisoner, who handed it to his wife. I saw no more of them that night. At 10.30 that night there came a rap at the door. I went to the door and asked who was there. I found it was Mr. Ayling who stated that the prisoner had come to him in a strange way about his colt. He asked after Lee, I told him they were gone to bed an hour before. The next morning as I was getting up, about quarter to six o'clock, I looked out of my window and saw the deceased coming down from the van. I observed that there was not much the matter with her. At quarter to eight o’clock, the prisoner came into the house and asked for a pint beer. I went and drawed it and put it on the counter; at this time his wife came in. He asked her to drink, and she said ‟No.” He repeated the question and she gave the same answer. He asked her if she would have anything, and she said ‟No.” He said to me ‟Master I have been upset ever since Ascot races. A jealousy, master, you know.” My wife said, ‟I should think not, you ought not, people travelling about the country like you should be ashamed to think of such a thing.” Deceased said, ‟Edward you have not the slightest reason to accuse me of such a thing.” I left the bar, and did not see him or her again until he was in custody. After he was in custody, I walked up to the prisoner; he was lying on the grass, and was very much agitated. I said, ‟For God’s sake, Lee, what have you been and done.” He said, ‟I have killed my wife!” I said, ‟You don’t mean that?” He said ‟Yes I’ve cut her throat.” He offered to go with the police without being handcuffed. I offered to mind him. We went and sat down on the road together, I asked him if he had thought anything about it when he was at my house? He said, ‟Yes a little, but I did not make up my mind till I was coming down the road.” He sat silent for a few minutes, when a person came up and said something to him. He said, ‟For God’s sake, don’t speak like that; you don’t know what I feel.” He gave me a ring off his finger and said ‟Keep it for my sake, and come and see me die. I had it before I was married.”
Cross-examined by Mr. Ford: Prisoner was not a drinking man, nor was he a violent man. I never heard him have an angry word with his wife; they appeared to be on perfectly good terms up to the time I last saw him. I made the remark to my wife the night before how kind he appeared to be to her. The conversation about Ascot races was not in an angry tome. In the course of the conversation I heard the prisoner say that two men had been following his van from Ascot races, and that one was his nephew and the other Houghton, or some such name. He asked me if they were then in my house, and I said, ‟No.” He said, ‟They are in the tap-room,” and he went into the tap-room and spoke to some bricklayers who were there. At the time the deceased was in bed, I saw the gruel handed by the prisoner through the curtains to some one who I believe was the prisoner’s wife. I believe the first day of Ascot races was the previous Tuesday, four days before. Maple Dereham is about eight or eight and a-half miles from Waterloo. Prisoner seemed to be in a great agitation about his colt. He appeared as if he had been running or walking fast. He said he had been and apologised to the man whose he had accused of having his colt. After the murder was committed, prisoner said to me, ‟You have poison in the house.” I said, ‟How came it here.” He said, ‟My wife had it here.” I said, ‟For God’s sake tell ne where it is.” He said, ‟In the oatmeal.” There was nothing of the kind. It was never out of my wife’s hands; it was all imagination. He said the two men who followed the van had given him the poison to get rid of the child. He said that his people had driven him off the course at Ascot. I don’t know whether this is true or not. Up to the time of the murder the prisoner and his wife seemed to be perfectly happy together.
The boy Wyatt was, at the request of Mr. Ford, recalled, and said, on examination there had been no quarrelling between his aunt and uncle that morning. They appeared to be happy and comfortable together, and slept together the night before. I saw him take the razor. He did not say what he took it for. He appeared to do it all of a sudden. No words passed between them.
By the Court: Aunt had threatened to have uncle locked up a few days before, but she did not say why. There was nothing said about the key of the door of the van, just before he took the razor.
This being the whole of the evidence for the prosecution, the customary caution was administered to the prisoner, who said ‟I murdered my wife and I wish to die for it. I was excited.”
Mr. Ford said he attended at the request of the prisoner’s friends who were not willing that he should appear to be deserted and forsaken. In the discharge of his melancholy and responsible duty, he had endeavoured to elicit some facts which might hereafter be found to have some importance in the case, and in the hope that when the prisoner came to be dealt with by a jury of his fellow countrymen, who would have the disposal of the prisoner’s life in their hands that some mitigating circumstances would be found that might reduce the crime to one of less magnitude than premeditated murder and lessen the fearful punishment also which must otherwise await him. He prayed God that whatever punishment might await him in this world he would find mercy in the sight of his Maker. He could not, under the circumstances given in evidence ask the magistrate to do otherwise than commit him for trial and he would reserve what had to be said in his defence until his trial.
The prisoner was then fully committed to take his trial at the ensuing Assizes for Wilful Murder, and Mr. Superintendent Harvey was bound over to prosecute. The court room was crowded to excess, and the quiet town of Havant was in a state of great excitement.
The wretched man, who, throughout the hearing, appeared to be in a dreadful state of mind, his manner being so excited that it was found necessary to handcuff his hands behind him, has since been removed to the county gaol at Winchester.