David Fleming

David Fleming died after being thrown out of a lodging house at 6 Customs House Street in Cardiff on 2 September 1907.

The landlady and her deputy were tried for his manslaughter but the case collapsed at the first trial after the jury went to look at the lodging house themselves, after which a new jury failed to reach a verdict and at a third trial the judge ordered not guilty verdicts.

It was said that David Fleming had gone to the lodging house under the influence of drink and had refused to leave.

It was alleged that they had pushed him downstairs, threw him into the street and lifted him up and bumped his head on the stone pavement three or four times.

His skull was fractured and he died a few days later.

A fruiterer who lived at 31 Wimbourne Street said that at about 11.30pm on Monday 2 September 1907 that he had been passing 6 Custom House Street, a common lodging house, when he saw several people on the first floor landing, including the landlady and the deputy, arguing with David Fleming, although he could not hear what they were arguing about.

He said that he stood there for about two minutes and then saw the deputy deliberately kick David Fleming and push him down the stairs. He said that David Fleming fell with a heavy thud and rolled over and over after he struck the ground and was quite unconscious, noting that he lifted his head two or three times.

He said that he then went off to the Monument to get a policeman who told him to get another policeman, which he did, and that he then helped the policeman put David Fleming into a cab.

He noted that when he returned from fetching the policeman that he noticed that David Fleming had been carried out through the door and was lying on the stone pavement on his back, two or three yards away.

He noted that he didn't see the landlady do anything to David Fleming whilst he was watching the argument.

He said that the distance from the bottom of the stairs to the door was about 15 to 18 feet and that the passage had been well lit.

He said that David Fleming had been knocked and kicked downstairs and had had his back to him and that the deputy had been facing him. He noted that he did not see David Fleming attempt to strike the deputy.

A woman who lived at 75 Court Road, said that at about 11.45pm on Monday 2 September 1907 that she had been standing opposite 6 Custom House Street when she saw the front door open and the landlady and deputy pushing David Fleming down the stairs. She said that David Fleming fell with a heavy thud and rolled over and over right into the doorway.

She said that they then picked David Fleming up and carried him outside and threw him on the stone pavement.

She said that she and her friend then crossed the street to where David Fleming was lying on his back and that the landlady and the deputy then came out, one of them taking hold of him by his shoulders and the other by his feet, and that they then lifted him up several feet from the pavement and let him fall back onto the pavement causing him to heavily strike his head on the pavement.

She said that they repeated that several times.

She said that the landlady then asked her to give her 6d and she would take him back into the house, but that she told her that she would give her no sixpence and called for someone to fetch the police, to which the landlady threatened to strike her.

She said that a policeman then arrived and she later made a statement.

The woman's friend corroborated her statement, noting that the landlady and the deputy picked David Fleming up and dropped him on the pavement at least twice.

After the police arrived David Fleming was taken to the hospital.

His death was due to inflammation of the membranes of the brain, set up by a fracture of the skull, which a doctor said could have been produced by a fall downstairs.

The police then went to 20 Bute Street where they arrested the deputy. When he was later charged, he said, 'The only thing I can say is I did not do anything to the man'.

The landlady was also arrested at 20 Bute Street the following day.

When the deputy later made a statement, he said:

The landlady and the deputy appeared at the Glamorgan Assizes at Cardiff on 12 November 1907, however, the case initially collapsed after the foreman of the jury intimated that several jurymen, since the previous day's adjournment, had visited 6 Custom House Street and were satisfied that it was impossible to see from the street what took place on the stairs. The visit was described as an irregular proceeding, as the jurymen had no authority from the court to make the inspection, and had done so without the court's knowledge and the jury were dismissed. A second jury then failed to agree on a verdict.

However, they appeared again on 17 March 1908 for a second time. However, the judge  stated that he didn't consider the evidence sufficient and they were both found not guilty and discharged.

Most of the properties along Custom House Street have since been demolished and the area redeveloped.