Newspaper Extract
Feloniously Wounding at Whiston
July 1875.George Machen (35), labourer, was indicted for feloniously and maliciously wounding George Taylor, with intent to do him grievous bodily harm, at Whiston, on the 12th of July last.
Mr. Lockwood prosecuted.
George Taylor, the prosecutor, said he was a gardener, and resided at Whiston.The prisoner lived next door, and beyond the prisoner's house was a house occupied by a man named Harrison.
On the night of Monday, the 12th of July, about 9 o'clock, witness went to Harrison's house.
He saw the prisoner standing at his door. The prisoner was saying he "Would murder the lot in that house before morning."
Witness went to Harrison's house a second time, about 11 o'clock, and he was asked to remain all night, as they were frightened from the prisoner's violence. Harrison's wife and the prisoner's daughter, who was in the house, went to bed, and Harrison and witness were about to retire, when they heard the prisoner making a noise as if he were attempting to make a hole in the partition wall.
Witness said Harrison had better go for a policeman. Harrison then left the house, and witness locked the door. He sat down in a chair near the door; but the door, which he had locked, was burst open in a moment, and the prisoner came in armed with a scythe blade. He pitched it at the witness's head, saying he "would do it for him first." The scythe blade struck witness on the forehead, inflicting a severe wound.
The prisoner then rushed in the direction of the chamber door, but witness followed, and received a second blow from the scythe blade, by which his hand was cut. He struggled with the prisoner, who attempted to stab him with the point of the blade, but he succeeded in pushing him out of the house. He then shouted "Murder," and Harrison returned.
Witness was bleeding very much, and became insensible.
Mary Machen, daughter of the prisoner, said he had threatened her on the Saturday, and she took refuge in Harrison's house, where she remained till the following Tuesday.
In reply to the prisoner, witness said he had sent for her to come back a great many times, but she refused to go, and he knew the reason why.
Mr, W. A. Jarren, surgeon at Rotherham Infirmary, said he attended to the prosecutor, who was suffering from a wound on the forehead, four inches in length, which cut through all the tissues into the bone. It was a dangerous wound, and might have been inflicted with such an instrument as the scythe blade produced. The prosecutor had also wounds on his fingers. The wound on his forehead was now almost healed.
Several other witnesses were examined.
The jury found the prisoner Guilty.
His Lordship said the prisoner had been convicted of a very savage assault on an inoffensive man.
He sentenced him to Penal servitude for seven years.
