Murderer. Constance Emily Kent was an English woman who confessed to the murder of her half-brother, Francis Saville Kent, in 1860, when she was aged 16 and he aged 4. The case led to high-level pronouncements as there was no longer any ancient priest-penitent privilege in England and Wales. In later life, Kent changed her name to Ruth Emilie Kaye and lived to age 100. She served a twenty-year prison term.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Sometime between the night of 29 June and the morning of 30 June 1860, three-year-old Francis Savill Kent (almost four years old) disappeared from his home. The murderer-his 16 year old half sister, Constance Kent. Eventually, his body was found in the vault of an outhouse (a privy) on the property. The child, still dressed in his nightshirt and wrapped in a blanket, had knife wounds on his chest and hands, and his throat was slashed so deeply that the body was almost decapitated.
Although the boy's nursemaid was initially arrested and quickly released, detective Jonathan Whicher of Scotland Yard suspected the boy's sixteen-year-old half-sister, Constance. She was arrested on 16 July, but released without trial. Constance Kent was prosecuted for the murder five years later, in 1865. She made a statement confessing her guilt to a Church of England clergyman, the Rev. Arthur Wagner, and she expressed to him her resolution to give herself up to justice. He assisted her in carrying out this resolution and he gave evidence of this statement before the magistrates.
Constance Kent died in a private hospital in the Sydney suburb of Strathfield at the age of 100, on 10 April 1944. The Sydney Morning Herald (on 11 April 1944) reported that she was cremated at Rookwood.
(Bio by H.C.~Maine, 47312104)
(Source: Wikipedia)
Sometime between the night of 29 June and the morning of 30 June 1860, three-year-old Francis Savill Kent (almost four years old) disappeared from his home. The murderer-his 16 year old half sister, Constance Kent. Eventually, his body was found in the vault of an outhouse (a privy) on the property. The child, still dressed in his nightshirt and wrapped in a blanket, had knife wounds on his chest and hands, and his throat was slashed so deeply that the body was almost decapitated.
Although the boy's nursemaid was initially arrested and quickly released, detective Jonathan Whicher of Scotland Yard suspected the boy's sixteen-year-old half-sister, Constance. She was arrested on 16 July, but released without trial. Constance Kent was prosecuted for the murder five years later, in 1865. She made a statement confessing her guilt to a Church of England clergyman, the Rev. Arthur Wagner, and she expressed to him her resolution to give herself up to justice. He assisted her in carrying out this resolution and he gave evidence of this statement before the magistrates.
Constance Kent died in a private hospital in the Sydney suburb of Strathfield at the age of 100, on 10 April 1944. The Sydney Morning Herald (on 11 April 1944) reported that she was cremated at Rookwood.
(Bio by H.C.~Maine, 47312104)
Murderer. Constance Emily Kent was an English woman who confessed to the murder of her half-brother, Francis Saville Kent, in 1860, when she was aged 16 and he aged 4. The case led to high-level pronouncements as there was no longer any ancient priest-penitent privilege in England and Wales. In later life, Kent changed her name to Ruth Emilie Kaye and lived to age 100. She served a twenty-year prison term.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Sometime between the night of 29 June and the morning of 30 June 1860, three-year-old Francis Savill Kent (almost four years old) disappeared from his home. The murderer-his 16 year old half sister, Constance Kent. Eventually, his body was found in the vault of an outhouse (a privy) on the property. The child, still dressed in his nightshirt and wrapped in a blanket, had knife wounds on his chest and hands, and his throat was slashed so deeply that the body was almost decapitated.
Although the boy's nursemaid was initially arrested and quickly released, detective Jonathan Whicher of Scotland Yard suspected the boy's sixteen-year-old half-sister, Constance. She was arrested on 16 July, but released without trial. Constance Kent was prosecuted for the murder five years later, in 1865. She made a statement confessing her guilt to a Church of England clergyman, the Rev. Arthur Wagner, and she expressed to him her resolution to give herself up to justice. He assisted her in carrying out this resolution and he gave evidence of this statement before the magistrates.
Constance Kent died in a private hospital in the Sydney suburb of Strathfield at the age of 100, on 10 April 1944. The Sydney Morning Herald (on 11 April 1944) reported that she was cremated at Rookwood.
(Bio by H.C.~Maine, 47312104)
(Source: Wikipedia)
Sometime between the night of 29 June and the morning of 30 June 1860, three-year-old Francis Savill Kent (almost four years old) disappeared from his home. The murderer-his 16 year old half sister, Constance Kent. Eventually, his body was found in the vault of an outhouse (a privy) on the property. The child, still dressed in his nightshirt and wrapped in a blanket, had knife wounds on his chest and hands, and his throat was slashed so deeply that the body was almost decapitated.
Although the boy's nursemaid was initially arrested and quickly released, detective Jonathan Whicher of Scotland Yard suspected the boy's sixteen-year-old half-sister, Constance. She was arrested on 16 July, but released without trial. Constance Kent was prosecuted for the murder five years later, in 1865. She made a statement confessing her guilt to a Church of England clergyman, the Rev. Arthur Wagner, and she expressed to him her resolution to give herself up to justice. He assisted her in carrying out this resolution and he gave evidence of this statement before the magistrates.
Constance Kent died in a private hospital in the Sydney suburb of Strathfield at the age of 100, on 10 April 1944. The Sydney Morning Herald (on 11 April 1944) reported that she was cremated at Rookwood.
(Bio by H.C.~Maine, 47312104)
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