Dr Crippen and Wilde trials go online
METRO London , April 28, 2008
Dr Hawley Crippen
The Proceedings of the Old Bailey website has added accounts of 100,000 trials from 1834 to 1913.
The site includes brief details of the 1895 trial of Oscar Wilde, then 40, who was indicted for 'unlawfully committing acts of gross indecency with certain male persons' and sentenced to two years of hard labour after being found guilty.
And there are extensive records of the 1910 trial of Hawley Crippen, an American doctor who was hanged for the murder and dismemberment of his British wife.
But the lesser known cases are of equal interest. According to the records, on April 28 1742 Edmund Larrat, of Stepney, was sentenced to death for stealing a sheep belonging to Thomas Wigans.
Giving evidence against him, John Poor said the pair went to the marsh at Poplar in the evening.
The files record his evidence: 'He laid a Plank over the Ditches, and we by that means got into the Field.
'He then caught a Sheep and kill'd it, after which he took out the Guts and ridded the Fat and put it into a Bag.
'After that he cut the Sheep in halves, and put one half in one Bag, and the other half in another. Then we went over the Plank again and brought it Home.'
Poor's own excuse was that he was 'a little in Liquor'.
The site can be searched using keywords, or by categories including crime, verdict and punishment.
Detailed images of all 190,000 original pages of the Proceedings are also available to view.
The website is a joint project by the Universities of Sheffield and Hertfordshire and the Open University.
Go to www.oldbaileyonline.org.uk to search for cases.
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