Baby

The body of a dead male child was found wrapped up in brown paper in Cottenham Road in Islington on Saturday 27 September 1902.

It was found by a schoolboy that had lived in Cottenham Road. He said that he had seen a lady looking at a parcel in the gutter and that he went to have a look and found that it contained the body of a child and so he went and informed the police.

A police constable that looked at the parcel said that the body of the child had been wrapped up in a copy of the Islington Daily Gazette dated 28 May 1902

The child was fully developed and had been born alive. The back of its head had been smashed in. The police surgeon that carried out the post mortem said that he found that the child had been born alive but that there had been no skilled attention at the time of birth.

He said that death was due to fracture of the skull during life by violence, noting that the bones were all smashed up.

The jury at the inquest held at the Islington Coroner's Court on Thursday 2 October 1902 returned a verdict of 'Wilful murder against some person or persons unknown'.

Cottenham Road is know called Sussex Way.