Thomas Daley

Thomas Daley was convicted of the murder of his paramour Sarah Ann Penfold and sentenced to death.

They had lived together in a room at 13 Queen Street, Chatham, and had a quarrel on the night of 3 June 1898 during which Thomas Daley beat Sarah Penfold to death.

Neighbours heard Sarah Penfold crying out:

In the morning Sarah Penfold was found dead, sitting in a chair naked, her body being bruised all over.

Thomas Daley admitted that he had jumped on her, struck her with a poker and kicked her and that when he had found she was dead that he calmly went back to bed.

Thomas Daley had been a labourer.

A woman that lived in Brrok and knew Sarah Penfold said that she saw her on the evening of Friday 3 June 1898 in King Street at about 9pm, stating that she appeared to have had some drink.

The landlord of the Victoria beer-house in King Street said that he knew Sarah Penfold by sight and that he had seen her in his house between 9pm and 9.30pm on 3 June 1898, stating that she had had some beer but had been perfectly sober.

A woman that lived at 15 Queen Street, next door to the room where Thomas Daley lived said that on the night of 3 June 1898 that she heard through the partition that divided her room from Thomas Daley's room a man knocking a woman about and the voice of a woman saying:

She said that the kicking still went on and that the woman complained again, saying that people would be disturbed. She said that the man then made some sort of reply and that she then heard the woman say:

And the man then say:

Adding, amid oaths, that he would brain her before the morning.

She said that the noise continued for about an hour and a half and that she then heard the man go out and come back again. She said that she then heard something that sounded like a chair fall with such force that it shook the partition between the two rooms.

She said that she then heard the most pitiful moans from the woman, which lasted until morning.

She noted that from the manner of Thomas Daley that he had been very drunk and that in all the time she had known him he had never given Sarah Penfold a kind word.

The woman's husband corroborated what his wife said, noting that he thought it was a drunken quarrel and that if he felt it was anything more serious that he would have interfered.

Another woman that lived in the house said that she heard noises during the night, although at the trial she first claimed that she had not, but was shown the depositions she had made at the magistrates in which she admitted so.

She went on to say that at 6am Thomas Daley knocked at her door and asked whether she had heard anything in the night, and said that she told him no and that Thomas Daley then said:

She said that she then went upstairs and found Sarah Penfold lying on her back on a chair, dead, with her hair almost touching the fender. She said that Sarah Penfold was quite nude and cold.

She said that she then put a slight covering over Sarah Penfold and asked Thomas Daley how long she had been like that and said that Thomas Daley told her that he didn't know, stating that he had woken up out of a drunken sleep and found her like that.

The woman said that on her advice Thomas Daley went off for a doctor and that she then to tell the landlady.

The landlady of 13 Queen Street said that Thomas Daley and Sarah Penfold had occupied a room in her house for about two weeks.

A labourer that lived at Stickettshill said that Thomas Daley came to him on the morning of 4 June 1898 at about 6amand said:

The labourer said that he then directed Thomas Daley to the parish doctor.

A police sergeant said that when he called at Queen Street at about 7.30am he saw Sarah Penfold with a large wound over her left eyebrow and various other wounds and bruises on her head and body. He added that there was blood on the fender, which had evidently fallen on her head, and a poker on the other side of the fender, smeared with blood and hair, the hair matching that of Sarah Penfold.

He said that when Thomas Daley came into the room that he asked him to account for Sarah Penfold's condition and that he said:

However, the police sergeant interupted him and said:

Thomas Daley went on to say:

The police sergeant then told him that there was evidence e of foul play and that he would have to take him to the police station.

When Thomas Daley was charged, he made no reply.

The police sergeant said that when he examined the room he found blood on the bedclothes, on the floor, on the walls and on various articles of furniture. He said that he also picked up two small lumps of hair.

He said there was a pail on a table in the room containing a little water and also two jugs, one of which had marks of blood stained lips on it.

He said that Sarah Penfold's body was clean and appeared as though it had been recently washed or wiped.

He said that Thomas Daley's underclothes were stained with blood, but that there were no marks of injury about his body at all.

At the Coroner's inquest, Thomas Daley said:

He then made a statement, in which he said:

A doctor that was called out said that when he found her that her body was cold and that rigormortis had set in and said that he thought she had been dead for about 12 hours.

He said that when he carried out the post mortem examination on 5 June 1898 that he found that there were several marks on her face, cuts and bruises, along with a cur on her mouth. He said there was also a bruise on her abdomen and a wound to the back of her neck. He said that in his opinion her death was due to syncope resulting from rupture of the vessels of the mesentery. He added that her injuries were consistent with a man having kicked or jumped on her, noting that it would have required great force to have inflicted them.

At his trial his defence was that he was not responsible for his actions owing to a disease of the brain whilst under the influence of drink.

It was heard that in 1897 Thomas Daley had been in St Bartholomew's Hospital in Chatham suffering from paralysis of the left side of the body as a result of organic brain disease and a clot of blood on the brain and that as such he would have been more easily excited than an ordinary individual

However, when the judge summed up , he said, referring to the plea of insanity, that with all the experience he had with cases like the present that he had failed to see a particle of evidence that had been put before him to prove the plea. He stated that mere drunkenness, which had been put forward, was no excuse for a crime.

After the jury found him guilty, Thomas Daley said:

Thomas Daley was then sentenced to death and later executed at Maidstone on 14 December 1898.