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Maidstone Gazette and Kentish Courier 20th May 1845.
Brutal and Cowardly Assault.
Saturday. — (Before E. Buck, Esq., Mayor, L. Allan, Esq., and Dr.
Drawbridge.)
Thomas Langford, Edward Viccars, Ambrose Herrington, and Henry
Driver, labourers, were charged with having, on the morning of the
13th instant, inflicted several blows with bludgeons on the head,
and kicked and otherwise ill treated one Thomas Williams, labourer,
who was thereby so severely bruised and injured that his life was
despaired of.
It appeared from the evidence of Joseph Howard, that he and Williams
(who was stated by the certificate of Dr. Brown, of Strood, to be in
a very precarious state, and unable to leave his bed,) on the
morning of the 13th, about half-past one o’clock, with two other of
their fellow labourers, having just quitted their employment at the
Thames and Medway Canal Railway, went into the "Dolphin"
public-house at Strood, to obtain some refreshment. They were
followed in by the defendants, and Langford said that Viccars should
dance with one of their men for a sovereign, but the wager was
ultimately reduced to a gallon of beer. The challenge was accepted,
the parties danced, and it was decided by all present, except
Langford, that Viccars had lost. He and his party, however, refused
to pay the bet, and although the canal men had won the wager, they
nevertheless called for the beer and paid for it themselves,
inviting their opponents to drink with them, and the dispute
appeared to be at an end. The defendants left the house before the
witness and his friends, and when witness and Williams were passing
down the road towards their homes, two of their companions having
gone another way, they saw Viccars and Driver. The former said,
“Now, you ------, now for it,” and immediately struck Williams on
the nose with his fist, and Herrington came out of an alley opposite
and struck him a violent blow with a bludgeon, which felled him to
the ground. Witness ran to get assistance, and when he came back
Herrington was beating Williams with the bludgeon, and Driver was
kicking him in the back, and using disgusting expressions. Witness,
not being able to cope with them himself, sought assistance from
another quarter, and on his return was attacked by Viccars with a
stick.
This stick was produced in court; it was of solid oak, about three
foot long, and four inches round.
Witness waa obliged once more to leave his friend, and was chased by
Viccars, who flung the stick at him, but he got away from him,
Henry Prior, of Strood, shoe-maker, corroborated part of this
statement, and further deposed that on turning Williams up, he found
that the foot of his right leg was turned quite round, and his leg
broken. They took him into the "Dolphin," and sent for Dr. Brown,
who immediately came and reduced the fracture.
Ezekiel Curtis corroborated Howard’s statement.
Thomas Allen, a master wheelwright, residing nearly opposite the
"Dolphin," gave similar evidence.
The defendants were remanded till next Saturday. |
