William Magness tried to claim that one of the men at the Swan Hotel had lent him the axe and the billhook. The first paper shown below was his answer to the charge of stealing the items...
| They were stolen, not borrowed ! | ||
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William Magness tried to claim that one of the men at the Swan Hotel had lent him the axe and the billhook. The first paper shown below was his answer to the charge of stealing the items... |
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"The man Llewellyn Howell lent me the axe and I didn't ask him for it". |
| But Mr
Howell (who was Henry Lewis, not Llewellyn
!) had a very different version of this story... Mr Howell's statement said - |
|
Part
of
court statement 1878 |
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"I
am a Servant in the employ of John Howells the Prosecutor.
On the 20th April instant [this month] I employed the Prisoner [William Magness] at the Swan Hotel. He was there from about 1 o'clock to 6 o'clock... ". |
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Drawing
by
Rob Davies |
"... I did
not lend the Prisoner the Axe and Hacker now produced. No conversation
took place between us on the subject".
So the statement
from Henry Lewis Howell, who had
asked William Magness to sweep the yard at the Swan Hotel in Hay in April
1878, stated quite definitely that he had
not let him borrow the items. The verdict on the axe thief...
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RDR
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