Joseph Hart said I am a traveller and dispose of quills and various articles of stationary. I arrived at the Sidney Arms, Cheltenham, on the 4th of March last, about ten o’clock in the morning; I had two bags containing stationary goods; I put the bags, by the direction of the landlady, in bedroom No. 8; it was afterwards removed to No.5; the articles were secured in a parcel and enclosed in a bag.
Cross-examined. —I placed the baggage in the first place near the bar; it was afterwards removed to room No. 8, and subsequently to No 5; No. 8 is, I believe, a double-bedded room; I missed the bag when I went to bed.
A charwoman, in the employ of the proprietor of the Arms, said, I was hanging out clothes on the evening in question; I heard a window open; bundle dropped into the clothes basket; it was enclosed in a brown wrapper and a leather strap; It upset the basket; 1 picked it up and held it in my hand; the prisoner came and demanded it; I said “Well, if you had sent this a little nearer it would have knocked my brains out.” I am positive from the position in which I was standing, that the parcel was thrown from the from the window of the room No. 5; the prisoner occupied No. 3.
Cross-examined. —You did not go into the house; you went up the yard; I don’t know whether you were drunk or not; I was searched on the morning subsequent to the robbery. The Chambermaid corroborated the evidence of the last witness in several points.
B Haywood: I am landlord of the Sidney Arms; on the night in question I knocked at the door of the sleeping apartment of the prisoner; the door was locked; I made ample noise to awake him; I was obliged to force the door open; the prisoner was apparently asleep; I had seen a strap in the possession of the prisoner, around his bag on previous occasions; there was no strap on the bag when I first entered the room; I mentioned the robbery; his manner was equivocating and unsatisfactory.
A policeman proved the taking of the prisoner into custody and the conversation which subsequently ensued; the prisoner materially pi prevaricated, in one instance he stated that the strap was in his bag, whereas it was not to be found. The prisoner in his defence attempted to prove that it was a pillow which was thrown from the window and not the contents of the bag and thrown at the servant in a playful and harmless manner.
The Jury found the prisoner guilty, and, after an impressive address he was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment.
