A woman whose preference for drink over looking after her children led to two of them dying within a year of each other avoided conviction on each occasion.
In January 1868 Sarah Ruddy was living with her three children in a cellar in Greetham Street. On the 25th of that month she left them playing alone and went out for a short while. Somehow her three year old son John's clothes caught fire and he ran out into the street screaming. A neighbour managed to extinguish the flames and John was taken to the Southern Hospital, where he died the next morning. At the inquest the cause of death was determined to be accidental.
With her previous home now uninhabitable Sarah moved to Gildart Street, lodging with a Margaret Lyons and her husband, who was a fireman on a tugboat. Sarah seemed to have some fondness for her landlady as when she gave birth to a daughter in July she named her Margaret.
On the afternoon of 12th September Sarah went out drinking, leaving Margaret with Mrs Lyons. On her return at 3pm Sarah asked for her daughter but despite Mrs Lyons advising against it, she insisted on being allowed to take her up to bed.
About half an hour afterwards Mrs Lyons went to check on the two of them and found that Sarah was lying on top of her daughter. Margaret was pulled out from underneath but was lifeless and the neighbour Jane Ward came round but failed to revive her.
A police officer was called and Sarah told him that Margaret had been ill for two weeks and had had a fit prior to dying. The officer had known Sarah as a drunken woman for ten years and when challenged by Mrs Lyons she admitted that she had lied. A surgeon from the South Dispensary confirmed that the cause of death was suffocation and at the inquest on 16th September, the jury returned a verdict of manslaughter. Sarah was taken into custody for committal to the winter assizes.
On 18th December Sarah told the court she was very sorry and Mrs Lyons gave evidence that she had generally treated her daughter with motherly kindness when sober. The jury then found Sarah not guilty and she was discharged from the dock.
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