Baby

The body of a newly-born child was found in an attic.

When the pathologist examined the body he said, 'The condition of the body did not enable me to say that this child was born alive, and if it was born alive, why it died. I am of the opinion that the child had been dead not more than three months. It is possible, but unlikely that it had been dead more than six months'.

The wife of a seaman said that on 15 October 1938 she had arranged to move from her address in Derby Street to 27 Argyle Street and got the key of the house from the owner. She said that when she went there she found a bundle of what appeared to be old blankets wrapped up in a woman's blue mackintosh in the attic and said that she threw it in the ash bin. However, she said that on 18 October 1938, she became curious and opened the bundle to find that it contained the partially mummified and partially decomposed body of a child, and then reported the matter to the police.