Southeastern Gazette, 11 January 1853.

Alleged Assault at Blackheath.

Joseph Pryce, 59, a mail of gentlemanly appearance, was charged with having assaulted Jane Box, with intent, &c. A second count charged him with an indecent assault. Mr. Russell prosecuted; Mr. Horn defended the prisoner.

It appeared that the prisoner, who is a stockbroker, went to the "Railway Tavern," at Blackheath, where the prosecutrix was employed as nursemaid. On her taking him up some coffee, it was alleged that he kissed her, and took other liberties, but there was no evidence to support the first count in the indictment, and after hearing the evidence, the jury acquitted him on the second count.

South Eastern Gazette, 11 September, 1860.

BLACKHEATH. The late Fatal Accident in the Railway Tunnel.

On Tuesday afternoon last an inquiry was held by Mr. C. J. Carttar, coroner, at the "Railway Tavern," adjoining the Blackheath station of the North Kent Railway, on the body of John King Charles, aged 22, the young man whose body was cut in two in the above tunnel on the night of Friday week.

Mr. Robinson, from the office of Mr. Rees, solicitor to the South-Eastern Railway Company, was in attendance on behalf of the company; and Mr. Fletcher, solicitor of Stepney, appeared for the widow of the deceased.

From the evidence given, it appeared that the deceased, who resided at 12, Hatfield-street, St, Luke’s, followed the occupation of superintending the posting of advertising bills for the proprietors, of several London newspapers, and was a passenger from Woolwich to London by the 5.26 p.m. train. He was seated in a second-class compartment next the box of the head-guard, a young woman being the only passenger with him. According to the statement of the guard, George Abbott, on the train leaving the Charlton Station he observed the deceased and the young woman romping together, and after entering the Blackheath tunnel he observed other acts between them which induced him to make known that he was witnessing by knocking at the carriage window with a key and shaking his finger. On the train leaving Blackheath Abbott missed the deceased from the carriage, and conjectured that he had alighted at that station. The young woman in question, when her ticket was demanded at New-cross, remarked that she had none, but that her friend (the deceased) had it, and she would wait for his arrival by a subsequent train. This she was allowed to do, and left at 6.50 with a person who got in at New-cross, she giving up a third-class return ticket from London to Woolwich. When Abbott, the guard, arrived in London with the train, some of the passengers called his attention to a severe jolting which was felt on the train coming through the tunnel, in consequence of which a search was made, but nothing was then discovered. Shortly before ten o’clock the same night, Mr. Chapman, the station-master, not feeling satisfied at the search which had been made, directed three of the porters to walk through the tunnel with lights, and on reaching a distance of about 300 yards they found the body of the deceased cut in two, the upper portion, from the waist, lying between the upline of metals, and the feet and legs near the wall, against which it is supposed the deceased struck while endeavouring to get from one carriage to another, to avoid any complaint being made against him by the guard. At this stage of the proceedings the inquiry was adjourned for a week, the Coroner remarking that as no doubt the case would obtain publicity the young woman might feel it right to come forward and give evidence in the case.

South Eastern Gazette, 18 September, 1860.

BLACKHEATH. The Fatal Accident in the Blackheath Railway Tunnel.

On Tuesday afternoon last, Mr. C. J. Carttar, coroner, held an adjourned inquiry at the "Railway Tavern," adjoining the Blackheath Station of the North Kent Railway, touching the death of John King Charles, aged 22, whose body was cut in two in the Blackheath-tunnel, on the afternoon of Friday, the 31st alt.

Two of the ticket collectors at the New-cross station, having given confirmatory evidence to that which has already appeared, of the arrival of the young woman, with whom the deceased was seen by the guard Abbott riding in the same carriage on the arrival of the train in the Blackheath tunnel, the coroner observed that the inquiry had been adjourned in the expectation that the young woman in question would have come forward and given evidence in the matter. Notwithstanding, however, every publicity appeared to have been given to the case, she had not been discovered, or made her appearance, and his opinion was that the jury could do no other than, in the absence of direct testimony, return an open verdict.

The jury having concurred in these observations, returned the following verdict:— "That the deceased was found dead in the Blackheath tunnel, cut in two from a train having gone over him, but how or from what cause originating there is no evidence before the jury to show.