One of the most interesting, and perhaps, more controversial cases in Plymouth involved the death of Plymouth Borough Police Constable, William Bennett.
In
the early evening of 25 July 1875, PC Bennett (collar number 45) was
on beat duty in the centre of Plymouth. His route took him into Lower
Lane and Palace Street, where he noticed two women, one of whom,
Susan Foster, appeared in obvious distress and was bleeding from a
head wound. On seeing the constable, she shouted to him, claiming she
had been attacked by her common-law 'husband', and, pointing Henry
Kitto out in the street demanded he be “taken in charge”. The
constable advised her to “get a cup of tea” and then gave chase
as Kitto tried to make his escape, pursuing him into a nearby
property at 6 Lower Lane. As PC Bennett closed on Kitto there ensued
a struggle during which both men fell down the stairs. A neighbour,
shoemaker Thomas Harvey, disturbed by the commotion, came out of his
rooms to find Kitto kneeling across the policeman's back at the
bottom of the stairs on the first floor landing, the constable's face
jammed against the wall and unable to move. Harvey managed to
separate the two men, and forcibly lifting Kitto off the prone
policeman, the men descended the remaining stairs and out into the
street without further struggle. Outside the door, PC Bennett grabbed at Kitto to make the arrest and in doing so Kitto fell heavily, pulling Bennett violently down with him. According to one witness, Kitto threw the constable to the floor although this was later shown not to be the case. Either way, Harvey, fearing that the scuffle was about to erupt again, took hold of Kitto's throat with such force that he fainted. Once Kitto had regained his senses, the three men made their way up St Andrew's Street toward the police station-house near the Guildhall.
Before
they had gone more than a few steps, PC Bennett exclaimed “I'm
licked – I can go no further.” Kitto, showing not a little
concern at the constable's by now ashen features and clearly
deteriorating health, told the officer to go and sit down, and he
would “go quietly with Tom (Harvey)”. William Smale, a carpenter
of Ebrington Street, saw the three men in St Andrews Street and noted
that by this time a large crowd had assembled and was following. The
constable, now very weak and pale, was taken to nearby Mr Barrett's
butcher's shop and given brandy which did little to revive him and
he soon began choking and foaming at the mouth, obviously in considerable pain;
within 25 minutes he was dead.
The
locally renowned Superintendent Wreford of the Plymouth Borough
Police went to see the deceased at the butcher's shop for himself,
before returning with the body to the station-house. There he charged
the horror-stricken Kitto with causing the death of the policeman.
Kitto until then had had no idea that PC Bennett had died. The
inconsolable Kitto protested his innocence to the charge of murder,
claiming that they had both fallen over the stairs.
Police
surgeon Sedley Wolferstan conducted the post mortem examination on PC
Bennett the following day. He found no external marks of
violence, and the internal organs were found to be healthy with the
exception of the heart which was “enlarged”, with some
degeneration of the main vein. There was a large effusion of blood on
the brain, caused by a blow to the back of the head. This was the
cause of death in his opinion, and not the result of the disease
found in the heart.
As
news of the policeman's death spread, angry mobs gathered at the
house where Kitto shared a room with Susan Foster and outside the
police station-house, while Kitto himself was remanded in custody
until the 26 July, when he would appear in court.
During
the trial held at the Devon Assizes at Exeter Castle, presided over
by His Lordship Mr Justice Quain, the background to the events of 15
July became clear. Henry Kitto, represented in court by Walter
Molesworth St.Aubyn, was described as a 24 year old 'navvy' and
occasional wrestler, “a short man but with nothing repulsive about
his features”, a native of Okehampton currently employed by a Mr
Rolf at the South Western Railway works in Plymouth.The salient facts
of the case as described during the court hearing are as follows:
When
he arrived home from work on the evening of 15 July, Henry Kitto was
upset and angry that there was no sign of his partner Susan Foster –
allegedly a prostitute, at least on a casual basis - and with no sign
of any supper having been made ready.
He
went to look for her and found her in the Napoleon Inn public house
(see picture above) on the corner of High Street,and, although not
drunk, she had obviously consumed more than enough. After a brief
bust up, the pair returned to their lodgings at 6 Lower Lane where
another altercation took place - this time far more serious and which
quickly turned violent. Kitto hit out at Foster knocking her off her
feet. While she lay on the floor Kitto continued to assault her, throwing several plates at her which smashed and caused the wound to her head. She managed to get away and
into the street, bleeding and shaken. It was at this point that
neighbour Thomas Harvey first became aware of the kerfuffle in the
street and when he looked out of his window he saw the bloodied
Foster with another woman, later identified as her sister, shouting
abuse and throwing dirt at a man he recognised as the prisoner
Kitto. Foster was shouting for assistance and for Kitto to be “taken
in charge”, presumably as she had just noticed PC Bennett turn into the
street. It was at this point in the trial as Harvey was being cross
examined, that Foster, in the public gallery having already given her
evidence, started shouting and crying, adding it “was all lies”.
She knew this was a very important point of law, and knew the likely
ramifications if the court accepted that she had uttered those or
similar words to the police officer; she became so agitated that she
had to be forcibly removed from the court. As the trial continued, it
became clear to Justice Quain that there was not enough evidence to
suggest that Kitto had intended to take the life of the policeman and that a charge of wilful murder could not be made; if the jury
reached the same conclusion, then they may only find the accused
guilty of manslaughter. Bearing in mind Foster's outburst, Justice
Quian went on to question whether there was sufficient evidence from
“this half-drunken woman” to prove that the policeman was acting
legally in attempting the arrest. Pointing to witness evidence that
PC Bennett's advice to Foster to “get a cup of tea” as an
indication that he didn't deem the situation too severe, Justice
Quain went on to consider the possibility that PC Bennett did not
have sufficient grounds to make an arrest. If the jury accepted that
this was indeed the case, then they must acquit the accused of all
charges.
Clearly,
this was Kitto's lucky day; Justice Quain went on to explain in his
summing up that in his experience of the Assizes the police were a
little too eager to interfere and arrest people without due
consideration. It fell, he said, to the jury to decide whether Kitto
had used excessive violence reminding them that no weapon had been
used and that there was no evidence to suggest any blows, even with
fists, had been struck. If they felt Kitto had used excessive
violence, and that violence had accelerated the death of PC Bennett,
then they must find the prisoner guilty of manslaughter.
It
took the jury just a few minutes to reach a verdict of “Not Guilty”
and amid scenes of a mixture of shock and disbelief on one hand and joy
and relief on the other, the prisoner was released from charge and
free to go.
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Entry
in the England & Wales Criminal Register; source
HO
27;
Piece:170;
Page:122
PC
William Bennett was aged 27 years, having been born in Landrake,
Cornwall in 1848. He had served with the Devonport Borough Police
before joining the Plymouth force in 1873 and was described as one of
their steadiest constables. He left a widow Mary Jane (nee Hooper),
until recently employed by the Honourable George Edgcumbe at
Stonehall, East Stonehouse. They had been married just 10 weeks.
Ironically, given the circumstances of the very start of the incident
that would be given in court, Mary Bennett was readying her husband's
supper when she was informed of his death.
A
subscription was raised for PC Bennett's widow by the sergeants and
constables of the Plymouth Borough Police and the headstone for his
grave (pictured below) at Ford Park Cemetery in Plymouth
leaves little doubt as to their own views on the outcome of the trial
- “Constable William Bennett killed whilst in the execution of his
duty in apprehending a man charged with the assault of a female in
Lower Lane, Plymouth 15thJuly 1875”.
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| Image of PC Bennett's headstone via www.billiongraves.com |
© Andrew Jago
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