suspicion of being the mother. The officer took the body from the privy at the instance of a labouring man, who was involved in cleaning it out. On the Tuesday following, an inquest was held at the White Horse Inn, Vochriw, before Mr. T. Williams, deputy-coroner, and a respectable jury, of which Rev. Jones-Evans was foreman. After the evidence of two witnesses who discovered the body, and also that of the policeman, the medical evidence was gone into. Mr. D. Kent Jones, surgeon, told that he was called by P.C. Hunt to examine the child, and he described its appearance etc.. Mr Cresswell, surgeon, Dowlais, said he had made a post mortem examination that day (Tuesday), and came to the conclusion that the child had breathed, but for how long he was not able to say. The inquest was adjourned for a fortnight to enable the supposed mother to attend.

8 April 1882  Concealment of Birth at Vochriw   Fanny Garbett, 22, single, a respectably-dressed, rather delicate looking young woman, was brought up charged with having attempted to conceal the birth of her child. Mr D. Rees Lewis appeared to prosecute, and called the first witness, Mary Kinsey, the wife of a collier, residing at 3, David’s Row, Vochriw. She stated that in a closet at the back of her house, which was used in common by her family and that living next door, she saw on the morning of the 4th., the dead body of a child under the seat, upon which there was some blood. Thomas Davies, haulier, who lodged with Mary Kinsey, said that about half an hour before Mrs. Kinsey made the discovery, he cleaned the closet out. There was nothing unusual about the place then. After being told of her discovery by Mrs. Kinsey, he went to the closet and saw the body. It was removed in his presence by P.C. Hunt. P.C. Hunt (Cwmfelin) said the child was naked, with the afterbirth attached. He directed some women to sever the umbilical cord, after which he showed the body to Dr Kent Jones.
The Stipendary: In future you had better not interfere with the natural appearance of anything which may come under your notice, unless the act should be necessary for the saving of life, which was not the case here.
Elizabeth Ann Hawke, a young woman who had worked with the prisoner at the Bargoed Coke Ovens, said that she had repeatedly said to the prisoner that she was pregnant prior to the finding of the child. Despite the fact that appearances were against her, she had persistently denied being pregnant. Amelia Garbett, 4 Davies’s-row, Vochriw, the prisoner’s step-mother, gave similar evidence. After the finding of the body, a conversation about the birth took place between her and her step-daughter, but her step-daughter denied all knowledge of it. The witness noticed nothing in her appearance immediately after the event different to that which she had presented immediately before. She complained of a cough in the night, and the witness thinking she had had but little rest, told her to stay at home from work the next morning.
Dr. Kent Jones, surgeon, Vochriw, who was next sworn, said that the body shown him by the police was that of a fully-developed, newly-born female infant. Dr. Kent Jones could not say positively whether it had been born alive or dead. There were certain marks observable on the body; the right side of the head and the right leg and arm were flattened, but these might well have been the result of severe labour or the lying of the body in a particular position after death. The umbilical cord had been cut, but not in the way it would have been in the case of a proper delivery. On the afternoon of the day upon which the child was born, the witness examined the prisoner and found that she had been recently delivered - within 18 hours or less.
P.C. Evans said that he saw the prisoner at her house shortly after finding the child. She denied all knowledge of the affair. On the following Saturday the 11th., the witness visited her bedside and heard a conversation going on between her and her stepmother, in the course of which the young woman admitted having given birth to the child and finding it dead, she watched her chance, and whilst Mrs. Garbett was out shopping, took the body out in the slop bucket to the closet at the back. P.C. Hunt then began to search the house for baby linen, but stopped when told that the prisoner had made no preparation of the kind.
This was all the evidence, and the Bench at once committed the accused for trial at the next assizes. The prosecutor did not object to bail. The magistrate said that he felt it would be better for the young woman to remain in custody. She would have to go to prison, where she would be well cared for, pending her trial at the next assizes which would take place in a fortnight or three weeks at the latest. This would be far preferable to a long wait which would be the result if the accused was released on bail. The accused who had remained silent and tolerably composed throughout the hearing, began to shed tears when told she must go to prison.

31 December 1892  Concealment of Birth   A lad named Pritchard, whilst playing on the banks of the stream past the corner of Brook-row, Vochriw, discovered the body of a male child lying among some stones. The body was removed