Sydenham Times, 17 June 1862.

Attempted Scicide.

At the Greenwich Police Court, on Friday last, Edward Webb, landlord of the "Lads of the Village" beershop, Willow-road, Sydenham, was charged with attempting to commit suicide by discharging a loaded gun at his head, and by which he and his wife narrowly escaped with their lives. The facts of the case are of an extraordinary character. The wife of the prisoner, in the year 1847, married a man named Thomas Sabin, the son of a farmer, by whom she had four children. Her husband deserted her six yean afterwards and went abroad, where it was supposed he had died. In 1857, Mrs. Sabin deeming herself a widow, was married to the prisoner, by whom she has a family of five children. To her astonishment about three months since, the first husband returned to this country from Italy to claim some property, which had been long a subject of dispute in the Court of Chancery, and had, it appears, expressed a desire that himself and wife should come together again. This came to the knowledge of the prisoner, who, in his supposed wife's presence took a loaded gun, held the muzzle of it to his head and discharged its contents. The woman, seeing what was being attempted, ran forward, and seizing hold of the muzzle of the gun, received part of the contents in her hand, several shots entering the face of the prisoner, and others penetrating the ceiling of the room in which the affair took place. They were both subsequently attended by medical gentlemen, and the injured woman was conveyed to Guy's Hospital, where it was found necessary to amputate one of the fingers of the right hand. The prisoner, when taken into custody by police-sergeant Best, 27 R, behaved very violently, struck the officer a heavy blow behind the left ear, and destroyed his uniform. The prisoner, who had nothing to say in answer to the charge, was remanded for a week.