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Leicester Mercury - 18th June 1898
The Borough Coroner (Mr R Harvey) held an enquiry on Thursday afternoon at the Leicester Infirmary, into the circumstances attending the death of Sidney Shipman, aged eight years old he son of Jno. Alfred Shipman, shoe clicker, Healey-street, South Wigston which occured at the Infirmary on Monday night, under circumstances of a somewhat singular nature. Supt. Hawkins of the borough force and Inspector Allen of the county constabulary, attended on behalf of the police and the boy Phipps, aged ten, who is alleged to have thrown a stone at the deceased, was also present with his father.
Sarah Ann Shipman, mother of the deceased said that on Friday, the 3rd June, the boy went out to play shortly before noon. A quarter of an hour afterwards he came back home crying and upon being asked what was the matter with him said "Teddy Phipps has killed me". Witness said "whatever do you mean boy?" and he replied "I threw a tin at Teddy Phipps over a butterfly and he threw a brick at me and it hit me on my back." She undressed the boy and examined him but only found a very slight mark under the shoulder a little left of the backbone. She bathed the part with cold water and deceased subsequently went out again playing with the same boy. Until the following Tuesday he appeared to be all right, but on that day he complained of pain in his back and leg. On Thursday witness sent for Dr Barnley, who examined the lad and told her to put him to bed, directing her to rub his back with methylated spirits and water. Next day the doctor saw deceased again and then advised that he should be removed to the Infirmary. This was done on Saturday. To witness's knowledge her boy had never before had any trouble with Teddy Phipps.
Edward Phipps, schoolboy, aged 10 son of Amos Phipps bricklayer of South Wigston was next called. The coroner elicited from him that he and the deceased went to the same school in South Wigston and often played together. It was true that last Friday week, while they were playing on the green together, deceased threw a tin at him. They had quarrelled about a butterfly wihich had belonged to witness's little brother Joe. It appeared that two other lads had taken it from Joe and when witness tried to get it back from them Sidney Shipman told them not to give it to him and at the same time threw a tin can at him which however fell on the ground without reaching him. There was a half brick on the ground close by, and witness picking ir up threw it at Shipman hitting him on the back near his shoulder. Deceased's back was turned to him at the time and he was standing about five yards away. Witness sobbed bitterly on being asked by the corner why he threw the brick and at last replied that "he didn't know." Deceased cried out on being struck and ran in home. Witness still crying said he had never thrown a brick before and had never before quarralled with the deceased. The latter had done nothng but throw a tin which did not hit him.
Dr Fagge, house-surgeon at the Infirmary stated that the deceased child Shipman was brought to that institution on Saturday the 11th inst. He was then suffering from an abscess in the back, double pneumonia and general blood poisoning. The abscess was opened and a small piece of the spine was found to have been broken off. There was a good deal of inflammation of the skin of the left left, apparently due to a sore place on the foot. The boy was delirious when brought to the Infirmary and remained so till his death which occured on Monday evening. The cause of death was pneumonia and blood poisoning. The pneumonia on the left side was directly traceable in his opinion to the abscess and the latter arose from the fractured and inflamed bone. The injury was such as might have been caused by a blow from a stone. Witness added that he founded his opinion on the symptoms only, adding that a post-morten would be necessary before he could state positively that the pneumonia was caused by the abscess.
The coroner in summing up said he thought there could be no doubt in the minds of the jury that this boys death was a consequence of the injury caused by Phipps throwing a half-brick at him. In the case of an adult person or even a youth who had reached years of discretion this would mean tht they would be bound to find the person who threw the missile guilty of manslaughter at least. But here they had a boy who was only ten and the law with regard to acts of this kind committed by young children was somewhat different to that which prevailed with regard to adults. The general principle was that a child under the age of seven years was incapable of commiting any crime at all. With regard to children between 7 and 14 years of age within whicih category the boy Phipps would come, the law was slightly different again, the presumption was that what would be a crime in the cae of an adult would not be in this instances unless there was evidencde to show that the child committing it was actuated by deliberate malice that he acted from motives of revenge and at an interval of time after the matter occurred which gave rise to his desire for revenge. In this case he thought it was quite clear that those conditions were not fulfilled. The whole thing was very rapidly done. Consequently there would be no question of sending the little boy Phipps to take his trial. The only other question was whether they considered a post-mortem was necessary. He did not think it was and he thought they would agree with him that the symptoms generally which brought on death was a direct consequence of the abscess and that the latter was due to a fractured bone caused by Phipps throwing the brick. If they adopted his view of the case they wold find a verdict to that effect, without saying whether death was due to an accident or to any criminal offence.
The jury, after a short deliberation came to the conclusion that a post-mortem examination was unnecessary and agreed to a formal verdict drawn up by the coroner on the lines suggested with the addition that there was no definite evidence of any malicious intention on the part of the boy Phipps. The jury also expressed a desire that the coroner should talk to the boy on the dangers of such conduct as stone throwing.
The coroner intimated that he would speak to the boy privately.
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Poor boys,
Edward married in 1914, lived to 83.
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That is a sad story isn't it? Boys just playing really and bad luck for Sidney to have had the fractured bone.
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