A mother who threw her new born baby through a window causing death was not sent to jail due to her state of mind at the time.
On the afternoon of Friday 3rd September 1915 a police officer was called to a pubic house in Tempest Hey as there was a baby lying on a flat roof. When he got there he saw the child lying naked but alive and covered in blood and soot. Looking through the kitchen window, he saw a young woman sat on a chair.
The woman initially said nothing when asked what the baby was doing there, but she eventually admitted that her name was Alice Emms and she worked as a charwoman at the premises. She said that she lived at Harlow Street in Dingle and had given birth to the child that morning, then thrown it through the kitchen window.
An ambulance was called and took Alice and the baby to the workhouse hospital in Brownlow Hill. The following day the baby died and when an inquest was opened it was adjourned by the deputy coroner due to Alice having to stay in hospital for treatment. The resumed inquest the end of the month inquest saw a verdict of wilful murder being returned and Alice was committed for trial at the autumn assizes.
On 28th October Alice appeared before Mr Justice Ridley and pleaded guilty to manslaughter. The prosecution accepted that at the time of the incident the unmarried twenty three year old suffered from transient mania and was not in control of her actions. After the Salvation Army said that they would take her into their care, the judge then bound her over.
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