Diss Family History Group

THE SUFFOLK TRAGEDY.

GARDINER ON HIS TRIAL.

At Suffolk Assizes, at Ipswich, on Thursday, William Gardiner (35), a foreman carpenter, and superintendent of a Primitive Methodist Sunday School at Sibton, was placed upon his trial charged with the murder of Rose Anne Harsent, a domestic servant.

Mr. Dickens, K.C., who appeared for the prosecution, said the parties resided close to one another at Peasenhall. In May of last year prisoner, a married man with a large family, commenced, said counsel, immoral relations with the murdered girl, which raised a scandal in the church. An enquiry was held, and the minister pointed out to Gardiner that he had certainly been guilty of indiscretion, and that he should be more careful in his conduct. The intimacy, however, continued, and he got the girl into trouble. The time came when this fact could no longer be concealed, and the case for the prosecution was that the prisoner wrote a letter making a midnight appointment with the girl, when he murdered her, and tried to destroy the body by fire. The crime took place in the kitchen of the deceased's mistress’s house, and the remains, much charred, were not discovered till the next morning. The learned counsel mentioned that in May last year, before the murder, the accused and deceased were seen one evening to go into Peasenhall Chapel by two men, who overheard a remarkable conversation. The girl, it was said, remarked that the previous Sunday she had been reading in the Bible about, what they were doing, and a chapter and verse were mentioned. This, counsel argued, showed the parties’ relations. Prisoner and deceased sat together at chapel, and on one occasion Mr. Rouse, who was in the rostrum, noticed Gardiner behave in what he considered an improper manner. Mr. Rouse wrote to prisoner about it, and suggested deceased should sit in some other place. Counsel then described the circumstances of the crime. The girl’s mistress heard a stifled scream and a thud in the night, but as a storm was raging she did not take any notice. Next morning deceased’s body (clad only in her nightdress) was found by her father, who had called to see her. A man named Morris saw marks of rubber shoes in the mud leading from prisoner’s to deceased’s place of employment and back again, and amongst Gardiner’s possessions were a pair of rubber shoes. Deceased’s wounds consisted of a stab in the left breast, and her throat was cut in two places. Beside the body was a burnt newspaper and tablecloth, and deceased’s nightdress was partially burnt. There was also a broken medicine bottle, and this had contained paraffin, which had been sprinkled about the floor. The medicine bottle was supplied by a local doctor, in the previous February, for an ailment for prisoner’s children. Traces of blood were found on Gardiner’s pocket knife. When arrested prisoner denied all knowledge of the murder or that he wrote a letter making a midnight appointment. Experts would state the letter was in prisoner’s handwriting.

Evidence was then taken.

Supt. Andrews stated the distance from the prisoner’s house to the deceased’s was 208 yards. There was a back staircase to the girl’s bedroom.

William George Wright, wheelwright, spoke to seeing deceased and accused go into the Peasenhall Chapel one night in May last year, and to hearing the conversation referred to.

Alphonee Skinner, another wheelwright, corroborated.