Girl Chloroformed

WAS IT "JACK THE RIPPER?"

At Edmonton yesterday, William Smith, 48, of 26, Wolseley-road, Wood Green, "porter", was charged with assaulting Elizabeth Shuttleworth, aged 14, by putting his hand over her mouth and attempting to kiss her at Brabant footpath Wood Green on the 8th inst. - Mr. Avery appeared to defend. The girl stated that about six o'clock on the night in question she was going home when she met the prisoner who asked her to go up a footpath. She consented and then prisoner caught hold of her by the waist, and kissed her, and then put a bottle to her lips. She ran away crying and was then very sick. The mother of the girl said her daughter came home and complained of the prisoner's conduct, and was sick till five in the morning. Her lips were covered with a white substance. A shoe-maker named Burnsby stated that he heard a cry of "stop him," and he rushed out of his house, and seeing a man running followed by a large crowd, he gave chase and succeeded in capturing prisoner who began feeling for something in his pocket, and said he would do for him. P.C. 218 Y said that on the night in question a man came to him and told him there had been a murder in Green-lanes, and that "Jack the Ripper" was caught, and the last witness stated to him that a girl had been chloroformed. Witness believed that a knife was mentioned. He then took prisoner to the station and he expressed his readiness to go there. From enquiries which had since been made he found that prisoner had been in the employ of the G.W. Railway for twenty years and had borne an irreproachable character, and was at work at the time the alleged assault was committed. The Bench dismissed the case, disbelieving complainants statement and stating that they thought prisoner's to be a very hard case.

Source: Weekly Guardian, Friday November 16, 1888