Accidents & Offences

New Zealand Mail, Issue 767, 12 November 1886, Page 10

Accidents & Offences

THE OAMARU INFANTICIDE CASE.

(united press association.) i Oamaru, November 5. Agnes Sorgenson was charged at the Resident Magistrate’s Court to-day with haying, on or about Sepfcembsr 20, murdered her infant, the body of which was found much mutilated in a hole in the garden of the house in which accused lived. Accused was defended, and pleaded not guilty. The evidence taken showed that the accused was delivered of a female child on the 18th of August last, and that the child was healthy when it wa3 born, but for two or three weeks after it looked very ill, and a neighbor told accused that she should obtainmedical advice. Accused did so, and thereafter the child improved. The accused told one of the witnesses that she did not intend to register the birth of the child ; she would leave that to the person that adopted it. One witness said that the child had been neglected ; that it was dirty and web all over. Previous io the disappearance of the child accused had asked a Derson to write a letter to Mrs Scott, care of Mr Smith, Meadow Bush, East Taieri. When asked by the neighbors where the child had gone, accused said the parson written to had called and taken it away the previous night, and that it would be better looked after where it had gone. Accused told one witness that she was a widow, and that her husband had been a sailor, but had died in London lately. Some time after the baby was born, accused removed it to a two-roomed cottage on the outskirts of the town, and it was from this place the accused said the child had been taken away. The landlord of the house said that the accused had borrowed a spade and tomahawK from him, and that they were put through the fence next morning. Next day the accused told the .landlord that she was going to Dunedin that afternoon. The body of the child was subsequently found in a hole in the garden along with a quantity of nightsoil, and presented a shocking appearance, the legs being cut off, and the head and chest much hacked. The

evidence given by Detective O’Brien was to the effect that he saw tho accused in Dunedin after she left Oamaru, and spoke to her. He afterward made inquiries of the woman who was said by the accused to have taken the child away from Oamaru, but could find no one of that name at the address given, and on returning found that the accused had disappeared.. He came back to Oamaru and searched in the garden of the cottage where accused lived, and found buried in a hole along with nightsoil, the body of a child, much mutilated. On the same day he left in search of the accused, and next saw her in charge of the police at Clinton. At the Dunedin railway station a Mrs Home spoke to the accused, and he heard accused say, “Yes, it is Tripp’s,” and also, “ I am ready to die.” The case was adjourned till to-morrow. Oamaru, November 6.

The charge against Agnes Sorgenson of murdering her child was resumed this morning. The evidence of the arresting constable was to the effect that the accused had given the name of Mary Johnston when arrested at Clinton; that she had never been in Oamaru ; and that she had only been in the Colony three months. Another witness said she had met the accused at the Dunedin Btation while being conveyed to Oamaru, and that she had stated in reference to what had appeared in the papers connected with the charge that she had done it, although this witness, in crossexamination, said she would not be positive that accused meant what she (witness) supposed she meant. The matron of the gaol said that accused had asked her if she pleaded guilty would they hang her or imprison her for life. She said she had not murdered the child, but if she said so they would not believe her. She expressed surprise at the body being chopped, and said it must have been done with the spade when burying it. The case was adjourned till Monday.