Agnes May Caswell

Agnes May Caswell died from an illegal operation on 11 February 1921.

A doctor was tried for her murder but acquitted.

Agnes Caswell and her husband had known the doctor under a different name for seven years.

Before her marriage, Agnes Caswell had been a widow with two children, and subsequent to her second marriage another child was born.

However, on 11 January 1921 Agnes Caswell was again pregnant and the doctor was said to have called at her house. He was said to have had tea with her and that afterwards he and her husband went out and visited public houses in Cilfynydd and Pontypridd. Ultimately they were said to have returned to Agnes Caswell's house and the doctor was allowed to stay the night, being accommodated with a couch in the back kitchen.

It was said that Agnes Caswell got up apparently in her usual health, her husband remaining in bed until midday, and that when she went down she found that the doctor had gone.

However, the following day Agnes Caswell was taken ill and a doctor and a local nurse were called and that day there was a miscarriage.

However, she died on 11 February 1921 and the doctor was arrested on 16 February and charged with murder.

However, at the trial, it was heard that Agnes Caswell's husband had said that Agnes Caswell had told him that she had slipped off some steps out in the back.

The doctor that visited her after she became ill said that he visited her a number of times and that she showed increasing symptoms of septic poisoning and that her cause of death was septicaemia, following on premature labour.

At the trial there was a long discussion between the prosecution and the judge, as to whether statements made by Agnes Caswell on her death bed should be admissible as evidence and the judge ruled that it should not.

As such, the judge then ruled that there was not sufficient evidence against the doctor and he was found not guilty and discharged.

The doctor had also been tried for the murder of Lilly Lawrence, but similarly acquitted.