Starved to death

EXTRAORDINARY TRIAL FOR MANSLAUGHTER. - This, which was known as the “Welsh fasting girl” case, attracted great attention. The prisoners were Evan and Hannah Jacobs, natives of Carmarthenshire, and they were tried for the manslaughter of their daughter Sarah.

The girl had pretended to be able to live without taking food, and had lain dressed as a bride for several months on a bed, where she had been visited by crowds of curious persons. To detect the imposture some nurses and doctors were sent from Guy’s Hospital to watch her, during which operations the girl died, and her parents were indicted for withholding food from her.

Mr. Justice Hannen, who tried the case at Carmarthen, summed up in a very elaborate manner, and asked the jury to pay particular attention to all the facts of the case. He ruled that, although the girl might have been, and probably was, a consenting party to the fraud, yet parents were bound to supply the wants of their children of tender years; and if the prisoners, in order to avoid detection of the fraud which they had entered upon, refused food to the girl they were guilty of manslaughter.

The jury, after about half an hour’s deliberation, found both prisoners guilty, but recommended the wife to the merciful consideration of the Court, as they believed that she acted under the control of her husband. The judge said be entirely concurred in the verdict, and he should adopt their recommendation as regarded the wife, because it was just possible that she was under the control of her husband more than had appeared. Still, both had been guilty of an aggravated offence; for no doubt they both assisted in this fraudulent deception on their neighbours and the public, and in order to carry it out they risked the life of their child, and she died. The male prisoner was sentenced to twelve months’ hard labour, and his wife to six months’ hard labour.