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GENERAL SESSIONS.
Saturday, 2nd December.
(Before His Honor Judge Skinner, and a jury of twelve,)
Mr O'Loughlin prosecuted on behalf of the Crown.
MANSLAUGHTER.
Christopher Balderstone and Maria Balderstone, on bail, appeared to answer a charge of manslaughter.
The Crown Prosecutor stated that the prisoners had been indicted from a coroner's inquest for having while both were in liquor killed their child Rebecca, four weeks old, by over-laying her on the night of the 17th September, at their residence Red Jacket Gully. The child had been laid between them when they went to bed, and he would show that they were both drunk, and had not taken proper precautions to preserve her life. If they were guilty of negligence, then a charge of manslaughter would lie against them, but if the jury thought that death was merely accidental, then a verdict of homicidal misadventure should be given, which was no crime in the eye of the law.
Bridget Bakey was called as a witness but did not appear, and the Crown Prosecutor applied to have her recognizances of L10 estreated. This was granted but, it appeared that she was described in the coroner's summons as a "diggers wife," and therefore the L10 cannot be recovered from her.
H. L. Atkinson, a legally qualified medical practioner, deposed that he had made a post mortem examination on the body of an infant a few weeks old, at the Red Lion Hotel, Sydney Flat. It appeared to have been strong and healthy, and the body presented the appearance of having been suffocated. On the in side of one of the knees there was an abrasion, a mark about the size of a shilling, as if the two thigh bones at the knee joints had been pressed together, with a heavy weight, during life. Other parts of the body were bruised; the kidneys were very much congested; the stomach was healthy; the brain was congested.
Mary Ann Harvey and Mary Ann Raynor were called as witnesses, but neither of them appeared and the Crown Prosecutor applied that their recognizances of L10 each should be estreated, and the application was granted.
The Crown Prosecutor, in the absence of these witnesses, said he could not proceed further.
Under the direction of his Honor the jury returned a verdict of acquittal, and the prisoners were discharged.
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