AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5191, 23 December 1884, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

♦ [Per Press Association.] (Per s.s. Bingarooma, via Auckland.) A BRUTAL ASSAULT. THE SUPPOSED CHILD MURDER. THE CONFESSION OF MUEDEE. Sydney, Dec. 18. Annie Watson, aged 18, a servant, waa brutally outraged at St Leonard's yesterday. She was seized by two men, one of whom held her while the other criminally assaulted her. Doth men are identifiable. No arrests have yet been made. At the inquest on the remains of the infant child of Mrs Prosser, found in a back yard in Collingwood street, the jury found that there was not sufficient evidence to prove that the child was born alive. The accused was remanded oa the first count, of concealment of birth. Mary Ann, a 13 year old daughter of the accused, deposed that immediately after the birth of the child her mother drank porter till she became intoxicated. Two days afterwards accused took the corpse out of a kerosene tin from under the bed, aud showed it to her. -Another sister then put it back in the tin, where it was kept for a month under the bed in which seven, of them slept. The otlier children of tbe accused denied that the body had beeu kept so long. Melbourne, Dec. 18 In connection with the reported murder of J. 13. Slack, it is surmised that Barnes ascertained from a fellow -prisoner, who had pledged jewellery with Slack, that Slack had property worth stealing. The detectives discovered two diamond rings, and clothes identified as Slack's were pawned by Barnes in various shops in Melbourne. W. J. Thompson, Barnes' fellow-prisoner, was discharged last week; therefore the two had opportunities of talking about Slack's death, and it is surmised that it i»

from something said by Barnes to Thompson that the latter suspected him of murdering Slack. It is surmised that he voluntarily confessed what he feared would become public otherwise. The' confession is disjointed and evidently is not the'whole truth.