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CURIOUS CHARGE OF RAPE.—John Thompson and James Merchant, were charged with a rape on Sarah Smith, at Halesowen, on the night of the 26th of July, and a third man, of the name of Lea, had been charged with a similar offence on the person of the prosecutrix on the night in question, who had since became her husband. Miss Smith, on entering the court, fainted in the arms of the officer; under examination she refused to answer several questions. In the Judge’s summary Baron Platt observed that the prosecutrix “appeared to have picked the best man among those in whose company she had been on the occasion in question.” Verdict—not guilty.
— Eddowes’s Shrewsbury Journal, Wednesday 01 April 1846 source