The Star. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 1897. ANOTHER CONSTANCE KENT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5835, 31 March 1897, Page 2

The Star. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 1897. ANOTHER CONSTANCE KENT.

A GIRL'S EXTRAORDINARY CONFESSION. MURDER OF A BABY. [From Our Correspondent.] LONDON, Feb.' 20. , An extraordinary confession of murder was made by a girl of thirteen, who was haled before Mr Bennett, the Marylebone Stipendiary, on Saturday. The' main facts of the affair, which looks very much like a second Constance Kent case, are as follow : — Mary Jane Scull, an orphan, liad lived with her uncle and aunt for a matter of ten years, during which time her foster parents, unblessed with, children, of their own, treated her in every ,way as their own child. It seems indeed they were more indulgent to the little orphan than was wholesome,: for Mary Jane was a wayward creature, tempestuous, and pettily vicious. But she loved her aunt in her own fashion, and out of that love sprang the tragedy unfolded at Marylebone on Saturday. Early in t}ie year just ended Mrs Scull presented her husband with a fine baby boy. Naturally upon thislong-hoped for son and heir, the parents bestowed more attention than upon their foster child, now grown into a gawky and not too lovable girl of thir-. teen. Mary Jane was not slow to show her DISLIKE OF THE NEW ARRIVAL, but she was not openly hostile to the helpless youngster, only sullenly indifferent to its many mother-made virtues. The child grew and thrived, but when only six months old its mother was taken so seriously ill that she had to be taken to the hospital. The child was left to the caro of its father and its cousin. Mrs Scull was in the hospital some two or three weeks, and thence was sent to the country to recruit. On her return home she was told hy her hushi-iiil that her child was dead and buried. It had been attended by a doctor, who, wlien tho end camo, certified that death arose f i'o_n exhaustion consequent on diarrhoea. Tho stricken mother accepted that verdict, and ill due time the little household fell back into the old groove— the groove out of which the coming of baby had for the time lifted it. Nothing occurred to disturb the mother's faith in the doctor's declaration as to THE CAUSE OF HER BABY'S DEATH until Friday last, when. Mary Jane had to be scolded for a piece of gross misconduct. The wicked little wretch had stolen a chop, belonging to a lodger, from the kitchen, and to blind her aunt, had shut the cat in the room with the bone. But the bone told a tale which cleared pussy completely: It had been cooked, and Mrs Scull knew that even the most accomplished cat that ever graced a boarding-house, stopped short at frying chops. So Mary Jane was called upon to explain. She lied strenuously, but in the end made sullen admission of her. ' guilt. Her aunt-- cuffed her, and then; to improve the occasion, gave her wfiat is known in domestic circles as a " good scolding." In the middle of this the girl suddenTy said: "I done the baby." "Done the baby?" gasped her atrat, "Oh, Polly, .what do you mean?" And then the girl made her confession. Mary Jane, whilst her annt was in the hospital, made up her mind to kill the baby, and soon discovered what she deemed would be. a simple, cheap and effective method. CAMPHORATED CHLOROFORM was used in tho family as a remedy for

toothache, and seeing the bottle wasmarked " poison," the girl obtained twopenny worth at a chemist's near by. She put the dose into baby's feeding bottle, and next day the little one wa3 dead. In explanation of her fearful crime, the girl informed her horror-stricken aunt, "I done it, coz you thought more of the baby than of me." Such was her story repeated before witnesses and not denied in Court. It may be, of course, that the girl is labouring under a delusion, or merely invented the story to wound her aunt in return for the lecturing she had received for the theft of the chop. But the evidence tendered at the Court does not favour, either theory. The probabilities, iudeed, are that Mary Jane Scull did commit the hideous crime she attributes to herself.