SYDNEY BABY-FARMING CASE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2479, 21 March 1893, Page 1

SYDNEY BABY-FARMING CASE.

The great baby-fanning case, in which John and iinnAi Makin were charged with the munhr of an infant named Horace Amber Mm ray, reached its final stage ou Saturday, March 11, both prisoners being found guilty. On coining to Court on that nmriii' g, after being locked up all ui"ht, the foreman of the jury stated that they had found both John and Sarah Makin guilty of murder. In the case of Mrs Makin, the jury desired to strouply recommend h«r to mercy. When the verdict was announced Mrs Makin laid her head on her husband's shoulder and sobbed bitterly. She continued to sob aud cry, and accused her daughter Clarissa of being the cause of the sentence, until removed in a state of complete prostration. Makin maintained an unmoved attitude throughout. Mr Justice Stephens aunounced that he would defer passing sentence until certain points which had been reserved for the full Court had been decided. The Makins are the family who are believed to have been responsible for the death of IS infants in all. There was great difficulty hi securing evidence for a conviction. There was ample evidence to show that Makin and his wife had received children, and had pawned baby cloihe* in profusion. The doctors, however, could find no trace of poison, o: determine how their children had come by their death, and Coroners' juries declined to accuse the prisoners of murder. It seemed highly improbable that any decisive verdict would ever be given, but a girl named Amber Murray identified one body as that of her infant son, whom she had entrusted to the care of the Makins in a thoroughly healthy condition. In the other cases there had been no complete identification. In this particular instance the mother was able to prove by some garments and the color of the hair that it was her child who had been interred in a back yavd at Hedfern. The Coroner's jury found a verdict of " Wilful murder " against the baby-farming husband and wife, and this verdict lias been continued by a jury in thy Ciimiutil Court,