BABY MURDER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10419, 17 April 1897, Page 2 (Supplement)

BABY MURDER.

THE LITTLE GIRL'S CONFESSION. The extraordinary confession of child murder by a 13-year-old girl named Mary Jane Scull was again tho subject of inquiry at the Marylebone Police Court, when th« girl was brought up on remand. The girl, it will be remembered, confessed to having wilfully murdered her cousin, Sidney Jame* Mark Scull, aged six months, on July 2 1896, by administering poison in a mil\' battle, and the case took a remarkably turn. Mr. Frayling appeared to prosecute on behalf of the Treasury, and stated thaf, the evidence ho proposed to call was thaj of the chemist who sold camphorated chlori» form to tho prisoner, a lodger at the uncleS house who gave her twopence to get it) fo» toothache, and the nurse who filled th*. baby's bottlo with milk, which was obtained from Mary Jane. The nurse did not smell the chloroform either when pouring tho milk into the bottlo or when the baby vomited. Referring to tho cause of death Mr. Frayling said that Dr. William Whittaker had given it as his opinion that it would be useless to exhume tho body, seeing that ib had been buried for six months. Ib was, therefore, for hie worship to consider whether he thought there was any reasonable chance of the girl being convicted if she were committed for trial. LKOAL DIKFICDLTY. Another difficulty arose out of the fact that she was under the age of 14 when the crime was committed. The same difficulty, Mr. Curtis-Bennett) replied, was also hie. There was, one might say, no evidence against the girl of any .kind, for in a case of murder the prisoner's own statement was not sufficient. The accused's' statement must be borne out by independent testimony. The doctor's ovidence did not support the accused's statement. The purchase of the chloroform was not sufficient of itself, as it rather tended to show that the transaction was an open one. Mr. Curtis-Bennett thought that if the case could not bo proved conclusively it would be useless to keep the girl in custody. "It would be impossible to do that," Mr. Frayling interpolated, and then His Worshipeaid thenexb question was what was to bo done with the child when she was discharged. The girl's uncle, who was then called, stated that after the things she had done whilowith his family he could not think of taking her beck. She had pretty nearly killed his wife, and this was not the first thing she had done. Some time ago she put something into some broth, and hie wife and niece were ill as a consequence. She had admitted that she thought it was dangerous for her to be with them. SHE NKED9 CORRECTION'. Mr, Curtis-Bennett vai of opinion that th» girl needed correction, and Mr. Kirby, the court missionary, undertook to find a home for her. She was remanded for a week. Throughout the proceeding* the girl had evinced very little interest. She cried a little, but later on when (he left the court in charge of an officer for the workhouse she was quite culm, end . m she walked along the Marjlebont :Botd chatted freely to her gurdiu. V ' . _.' _