Monmouthshire Merlin

THE EXTRAORDINARY ASSAULT CASE NEAR ABERGAVENNY. Thomas Powell, John Powell, and Thomas Phillips, farm labourers, all on bail, were charged with attempting to ravish Sarah Jane Williams, wife of a farmer, at Llangattock Lingoed, on the 7th September. They were also charged with indecent assault and common assault. Mr. Pritchard was for the prosecution the prisoners were defended by Mr. Smythies. Mr. Pritchard having opened the case, called the prosecutrix, who is a good-looking young woman, and who appeared in the witness-box rather showily dressed. She was accommodated with a chair. She said she was the wife of Mr. George Williams, Little Park Farm, Llangattock; Thomas Phillips had been in the service of her husband for some months. Thomas Powell was employed on the day before the occurrence. It was the prisoners duty to he in the house the night before the occurrence, but they were not. On the Tuesday in question her husband went to Abergavenny market. After her husband was gone she drew the prisoners a quart of beer, after which she went to milk. When she came back Thomas Phillips and Thomas Powell were; John Powell was not there; he was a brother of Thomas Powell. She asked them why they were not gone to work, and they said they were not going to work - they were going to the public. She toid them they had better leave the house. She then went to the dairy, and to see about the milk and the poultry. and was gone about an hour. When she came back Phillips asked her the time. There was a clock in the kitchen, but it had stopped, and she went upstairs into her bedroom, to look at her watch. When she went in the last time she saw Wm. Jones on a chair, by the kitchen door. When she got into the bedroom the prisoners followed her. Thomas Powell took hold of her, and pulled her on the bed. John Powell was on the stairs. Witness went on to describe the conduct of Powell,who attempted to outrage her, and struck her on the chest two or three times, and put his hand on her mouth. She asked Phillips, who was by the bed, to assist her, but instead of doing so, he took hold of her, and assisted Powell. She asked Phillips to loose her, and he did so. but Poweil kept hold of her a long time—about half an hour. She struck him three times, and made his nose bleed, and at last he got off the bed. Phillips then took liberties with her, but she struck him also, and made his nose bleed. She got away, and ran into the kitchen. John Powell was on the stairs, and he went down first, and she went after, followed by the two other men. In the kitchen the whole of the men disarranged their clothing. She went into the parlour, where there was a sofa, but no lock on the door. John Powell followed her, and behaved most indecently. Phillips came in and assisted Powell. She ran away from the the two men into the fold. John Powell overtook her there and dragged her into the barn, which was at the end of the fold. He tried to get her down, but did not succeed. She got away from him, and went back to the house, where she met Phillips at the gate. He took her into the house and put her on his knees on a chair, in the kitchen, when John Powell took a strap off his waist, and strapped her legs above her knees, under her clothes. They then drew three quarts of beer in a tin, took a bottle of cider, and went away. A boy, named William Jones, was in the kitchen; he went out, but did not follow them. Thomas Phillips and John Powell told the boy not to say anything about it, and Phillips said that if either of them said anything, he would smash their heads. He told Jones that he would smash his head if he did not draw some beer. After the men had gone away, leaving her strapped in the chair, she was exhausted, and was some time unbuckling the strap. She locked the house up and went to meet her husband, and the boy Jones, who had remained outside, went with her. Their house was quite in the country, and was about a quarter of a mile from the Great Park Farm-house, which was the nearest house. It was about three or four o'clock when she left the house. She met her husband a mile on the road, and told him about it. She had put the strap in a drawer up- stairs, and she gave it to her husband that night. She and her husband had lived together since marriage they had had a child, but lost it. Cross-examined The child was a seven months child and very delicate. It was born five months after marriage: they had had no children since. Their servant had gone to Abergavenny when the occurrence took place, and she did not come back for a month; she did not leave because she would not live with her. She was ill for a fortnight afterwards. When the men came into her bedroom she screamed and told them to go away. The boy Jones must have heard screams, but he was afraid to come. Jones was a boy and she did not ask him to help her. She did not say in the presence of Mr. Samuel Jones and Thomas Williams, that if she did not say anything to her husband the boy would, and it would be sure to reach her husband's ears. W. Jones, aged 15, said he was in the service of Mr. Powell. He heard Thomas Phillips ask what time it was. Mrs. Williams went upstairs to see what time it was, as the clock downstairs was not going. The Powells and Phillips went up after her out of the kitchen. Witness stayed in the kitchen. He heard Mrs. Williams screaming and then she came downstairs followed by them. Thomas Powell and Phillips had their noses bleeding. In the kitchen they exposed themselves, and Mrs. Williams ran into the parlour. John Powell and Phillips went after her, and he saw John Powell treating her very indecently. The men asked him to go and draw drink, and said if he did not they would smash his head. This was after what happened in the parlour. Mrs. Williams appeared to be in a very bad way—very angry. He saw Phillips pull Mrs. Williams on a chair in the parlour, and John Powell strapped her legs. This witness further confirmed Mrs. Williams's evidence. Cross-examined: He was not sure whether Mrs. Williams went up stairs more than once although he may have told the magistrates that she went upstairs twice. He might have said that her legs were strapped before she went up the second time. They did not go straight into the parlour, as soon as they came down stairs they exposed themselves in the kitchen. The strap (produced) came off John Powell. He saw it put on her directly before they went away. He knew Mrs. Williams was strapped, but he did not offer to assist her. It was put on her just above her knees. He did not see her take it off. (Witness showed the Court how the strap was fastened.) By the Chairman He was 15 years last June. Mr. George Williams, a man nearly fifty years of age, said he occupied Little Park farm, and was the husband of the prosecutrix He received the strap produced from his wife which he had kept ever since. He had gone to market, and on his way home he. met his wife about a mile from the house. She. made a complaint about something having been done to her. She seemed to be very much exhausted, and was all of a shake. When he got home he saw a quantity of blood downstairs, and upstairs, and even on the bed. There was blood on the settle in the kitchen, and near the sofa in the parlour. He had a field of barley to mow, but he did not see them mow it. There were no signs of work having been done. They did not come home that night, but next morning he saw Thomas Phillips, and he said Thomas Powell began the affair, and had too much beer, and that it was too bad. Witness said he should take proceedings against him, and went and got a warrant that afternoon. He did not interfere with the blood in any way. Thomas Davies, Werndifford Farm, father of the prosecutrix, said he went to his daughter's house, and saw the kitchen and parlour "all over blood." There was blood on the stairs and elsewhere. He saw his daughter, who was very weakly, and always was a weakly girl. The Chairman said he should turn the attention of the jury to the count for indecent assault. Mr. Smythies, in addressing the jury for the defence, pointed out certain discrepancies in the evidence of the prosecutrix and the witness Jones. Her whole story, he said, was exaggerated, and could it be believed that any one of the prisoners would be such an idiot, after the affair had taken place, to take off a strap, put it round her thighs, and leave it to her as evidence against them? The defence set up by Mr. Smythies was, in fact, that the prosecutrix was a wanton woman, and had been guilty of perjury. Mr Pritchard dwelt on the unmanly nature of the offence, and animadverted most strongly on the nature of the defence The Chairman in summing up, said the case was one of the most important that could be tried in that or in any other court. As for a common assault, it was out of the question; it was an indecent assault or nothing. The question really was whether they believed the witness. The Chairman then remarked that the depositions from Abergavenny had been sent to the Court in the most extraordinary manner, having, as far as he could see, been altered in a very material way,, and in some instances in different handwritings-. He should have felt it his duty to have expressed his opinion so strongly on the matter to the magistrates of the division, that they might have thought it their duty to consider whether the gentleman who was responsible for the depositions was really a fit person to continue in the office he held had he not been told that the explanation of the fact was to be found in illness. In the course of a careful review of the evidence, the learned Chairman said the case was proved to demonstration if they believed the evidence of the prosecutrix and the boy Jones. The jury returned a verdict of guilty of an indecent assault. The Chairman, in passing sentence, said that he had consulted his brother magistrates, and they were unanimous in the opinion that the utmost sentence of the law should be inflicted. The sentence on. the prisoners would be two years hard labour. Mr. Pritchard applied for extra expenses, which were granted, the Chairman remarking that when he considered how character was at stake, and how the safety of people left in farm houses was involved, he looked on it as the most important, as well as the most painful case, he had ever tried.