CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT
Sessions Paper.
RENALS, MAYOR.
THIRD SESSION, HELD JANUARY 7TH, 1895.
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE,
TAKEN IN SHORT-HAND BY
AND
Short-hand Writers to the Court,
Reference Number: t18950107-160
160. WILLIAM GEORGE STONE , Feloniously setting fire to his dwelling-house, Esther Stone and other persons being therein. Second Count, attempting to set fire to his dwelling-house under such circumstances that if the house had thereby been set fire to he would have been guilty of felony.
MR. JONES LEWIS Prosecuted, and MR. GEOGHEGAN Defended. JOHN STONE. The prisoner is my father—I live with him at 118, Gowan Avenue, Fulham—just after eight a.m. on December 27th my mother called me, and I went downstairs into the front parlour, where I saw my father with a stick walking about and saying he wanted to find the dog to hit it—we had a dog—my father was dressed—he was not sober—I said, "Don't hit the dog"—he said, "I will hit you"—he struck at me with the stick, but missed me—the stick fell from his hand—he clenched his fist and fell on me, and we both fell together—my two brothers, George and William, came in and pulled him off me—I then went into the back parlour out of his way—he followed me there, seized me, and held me in the corner—I called for help—my two brothers pulled him off—one of them is older than I am—my father fell on a box and lay there, helplessly drunk—the room (the back parlour) was full of boxes, there was no fire in the grate—we all went upstairs into the front bedroom—mother next came upstairs and stopped there—soon after I heard father shouting up the stairs that the back room was alight, "Burn up! burn up!"—the house was getting full of smoke—my eldest brother jumped out of the window—I opened the door and saw smoke coming from the lower rooms—I did not go downstairs.
Cross-examined. My father was mad drunk—when he tumbled and fell on the boxes I left him, thinking it was best for him to lie there and sleep it off—I am sure he did not know what he was doing.
ARTHUR STONE . I am another son of the prisoner, and live with him at 118, Gowan Avenue, Fulham—at 8.30 a.m. on the 27th December I was in the wash-house next the kitchen—I saw my father come into the kitchen; he was drunk—there were some rags there which he put on a Windsor chair near the dresser, and about a yard from the fireplace—he lighted the rags with a match—he did not see me—then he went and stood outside the back parlour door with a razor in his hand—I threw open the door leading into the wash-house, and he saw me and said, "Don't open your mouth, or else I will cut your throat"—I put out the fire on the chair in the kitchen—the back of the chair and front of the dresser were burnt—the dresser is wood and is fastened on to the wall—the chair was just against it, the back of the chair was at the dresser—a policeman came, and after he had come I saw some rags burning on the floor of the back parlour in front of the fireplace; there was no fire in the grate—I believe there was a carpet in the room, I did not notice—the wood of the floor was burnt, I am sure—I put out that tire with water—there was only one fire in the back parlour—when I was putting the fire out my mother, sister, and two brothers came downstairs and helped me—they were in the house.
Cross-examined. They came down after the policeman came—about two buckets of water put the fire out—when I say that the dresser was burnt, I mean that the paint in front of it was scorched, and when I say the floor was burnt, I mean that the top of the boards was scorched in two or three places.
HENRY HATCH (246 T). About 8.45 on 27th December, I was called by George Stone to the prosecutor's house—I found the prisoner at the bottom of the stairs with this razor open in his hand; he was brandishing it about—he appeared to have been drinking; he was not drunk at the time—he seemed as if he had been on the ground and was getting up—I asked him what he was doing, and he immediately shut it up and said, "I am done," and gave it to me—I took him into custody—the house was full of smoke, there was fire in two rooms; the back parlour was nothing but flames when I opened the door—I called the sons downstairs to put it out, and sent for the fire-engine; by the time it arrived the fire was out—I went into the back parlour after the fire was out—I saw the place had been all afire; the fire had been all over the floor, the boards were scorched all over the floor, I think—in the kitchen the back of the chair had been burnt very much, and the drawers of the dresser, against which the chair was, were burnt—the dresser was scorched—the front of the drawers was burnt pretty near out, and the framework was burnt too—the floor of the parlour was burnt very little, just scorched.
Cross-examined. I should not think the prisoner was trying to shave, or to cut his throat or mine; he was waving the razor about—I should not say he was perfectly sober; he seemed as if he had had a lot of drink, and was just recovering from it—he was taken to the station at once, and to the Police-court in the afternoon—he has been in custody ever since—I should say he was on the verge of delirium tremens.
JAMES WELLER . I am engineer in charge of the Walham Green Fire Brigade—at 8.52 a.m. on December 27th I was called and went with the engine to 118, Gowan Avenue, Fulham—I found there had been a small fire in each of two back rooms on the ground floor—in the kitchen I found some wearing apparel on the back of a chair, and the front of the dresser burnt; as far as I could see the chair had been standing against the dresser, with clothes on the top of it—the front of the drawers of the dresser was charred, not burnt out, the dresser itself was not burnt—the back of the chair was burnt pretty well away—it had been put out before I arrived—in the next room I found wearing apparel scattered about and burnt—I did not notice the floor—there was no fire in the grate—the dresser was about six feet from the fireplace—I asked the prisoner how he accounted for the fire, and he told me to ask someone else.
THOMAS FORD (Sergeant 95 T). At 9.10 on 27th December I went to this house—I saw the fireman, and from what he said I saw Arthur Stone, and then I went and told the prisoner I should arrest him for setting fire to the house to the danger of the people in it—he said, "You will have to prove that I set it on fire"—I took him to the station; he made no reply there when charged—he appeared to have just got over a very heavy drinking bout—he knew what he was about when I saw him.
Cross-examined. He was perfectly sober when I saw him; I should say he was as sober as I am now—it was 9.10—I heard from the constable that he had been waving a razor about and shouting, mad drunk, about an hour before I arrested him—I still say he was perfectly sober—the sight of a constable frequently sobers a drunken man when a thing of this sort occurs.
The COMMON SERJEANT considered that there was no evidence to go to the JURY on the first Count.
JOHN STONE (Re-examined by MR. GEOGHEGAN). We burn paraffin lamps—I have since heard that my father was at the Putney Working Men's Club the previous night.
A witness deposed to the prisoner's good character.
NOT GUILTY .
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