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.--..---CONCEALMENT OF BIRTH…

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CONCEALMENT OF BIRTH NEAR BRIDGEND. At Bridgend Police-court, on Monday afternoon, Mr. E. B. Reece (coroner) held an inquest touching the death of a newly-born female infant child, alleged to be the offspring of Annie Bevan, cook in the employ of Miss Head-Deacon, of Laleston. Mr. T. J. Hughes, solicitor, of Bridgend, watched the case for the mother of the deceased child. The following medical men were presentDr. Egbert Williams, Dr. Wyndham Randall, and Dr. Hood, and the Rev. George Griffiths, curate of Laleston. The inquiry evoked great interest. Mary Rees said I live at Laleston Cottage, in the parish of Laleston. I am housemaid to Miss Head-Deacon, a single woman. Annie Bevan was cook in Miss Deacon's employ. I re- member Annie Bevan complain of being ill on Thursday night. I noticed it, and asked her if she was ill, and she said, "I should think I am." She said she had pain in the stomach. I heated some salt to relieve the pain, and she applied it herself. She went to her almost immediately after complaining of the pain. I did not know she was enciente. I had no suspicion of her being so. I sat up with her a little that night. She had a bedroom to herself. She passed through my room about two o'clock in the morning towards the kitchen. There are two doors to Annie Bevan's bedroom-one leading into her room, the other to the kitchen. As she was going through, I asked her where she was going, and she said," To light the kitchen fire. I. did not ask her why she was going to do so. I heard her go down the stairs. I went .down after her in about ten minutes time, and found her standing in the kitchen. I lit the fire for her. She still seemed very ill, she went into her room, and I went back to bed. I was awakened about five o'clock by the slamming of the door downstairs. I got up and went down to the kitchen. I noticed a patch of blood by the bedroom leading to the back stairs I noticed nothing else. Annie Bevan was not in the kitchen, but I heard her going back to her room by the back stairs. About ten minutes would have elapsed from the time of the slamming of the "door. I went up to her room again. She was standing by the bed. I told her I would go and tell Miss Deacon what I had seen. I had sus- picions then. She said." Don't be so silly." I then went straight and told Miss Deacon, who told me to go to bed in her room. There is a communi- cation from Bevan's bedroom to the lower and back part of the house and leading to the courtyard, where there is a w.c. By the Jury We had been fellow servants for about ten months. I had no suspicion of her con- -dition during that time until she complained of heing ill. The Coroner asked why the inquest was held in his district, as the affair had happened at Laleston in another district. Sergeant Row said that he had no desire to do wrong; but thought that for safety it would be as well to bring the body here as also for the convenience of the jury. The Coroner said he did not wish to say that what had been done was wrong; and as the inquest had been called there it must be held. But it was as well to keep the districts separate. Charles Stenner said I am the head gardener to Miss Deacon about a quarter to six o'clock on Friday morning that lady called me up and told ;me to go for the midwife (Mrs. Elizabeth Rees.) After returning with Mrs. Rees I had occasion to go to the servants' w.c. in the court yard. I had a lantern with me I saw blood on the seat; I saw something else but weat away without ascertain- ing what it was. I did not go back there until the doctor came, a little before nine o'clock. I went with him, and found the body of the child in the zinc bucket.. Dr. Egbert Williams, practising at Bridgend, said I wos sent for on Friday morning by Miss Head-Deacon. I arrived about twenty minutes to nine. I went upstairs to the cook's bedroom. I saw Anaie Bevan. She looked very ill. I wished "to examine her, but she would not allow me. I then went downstairs, and was told by Stenner that he bad seen marks of blood on the landing leading from Bevan's room to the w.c. I saw bloodstain marks on the staircase. The bloodstains were quite fresh. In the zinc bucket I saw the body of the child lying on the top. I sent for constable, and the body was removed. I got Dr. Randall to accompany me to see Annie Bevan, and the then allowed us to examine her. We found that she had been recently confined. I afterwards made a post-mortem examination of the body of the child at the police-station. Externally on the left side of the head I found several abrasions, one on,and below the larynx, one above and below the collar bone, and one about the middle and outer part of the left arm. Internally, the brain on the surface of the pericranium I found a slight abrasion caused by pressure, and congestion of the mem- branes on the surface of the brain. The latter was healthy. In opening the chest, the left lung lay back almost out of sight. This proved it was not properly inflated. The right lung was a little more prominent. '"Both lungs were partly in- flated, and respiration imperfectly established. The lungs were friable on pressure, and oozed with blood; it showed that some air had entered, and portions of the lung" floated on rain water. The right side of the heart was gorged with blood, the left side being almost empty. This would show death was from suffocation. I have no opinion whether the child was fully born or not. My opinion is the abrasions were caused by the finger nails of the mother in the process of trying to deliver herself. The outer and internal abrasions corresponded. It did not appear that the abrasions on the larynx had been caused for the purpose of destroying life. My opinion, from what I saw, is that the child was dead before being put into the zinc bucket The jury found that the child died during birth.

PENARTE POLICE COURT.

THE SEVERE WEATHER.

CORRESPONDENCE.

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FOOTBALL.

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FUNNIOSITIES.

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MR. GLADSTONE ON THE "ENGLISH…

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CONGL Y CYMRY.

BARDDONIAETH.