QSR1875/4/5/10

Depositions and examination - John Foskett charged with indecently assaulting Anne Rebecca Betts at Clapham on 27 September 1875

2 October 1875

From: 1875 To: 1875

Anne Rebecca Betts of Clapham – she is in her tenth year of age. She lives at Clapham with her mother and father. John Foskett lived in the house. He left last Tuesday morning. On Monday morning 27 September she was in the kitchen. Only John Foskett was in the house. She was going upstairs and he got hold of her frock and pulled her back. He was close by the stairs sitting down in a chair …[etc] … He said “go and sit down in that chair. Some one is coming”. She did so. Her father came. She went with her father to Mrs Carter. Mrs Carter asked her something. She answered her. She complained of John Foskett. [Cross-examined] She did not expose herself. Ann Betts of Clapham – she is the wife of Hezekiah Betts and mother of Ann Rebecca Betts. She was at work in Bedford on Monday 27th. She left home at 7.45am. In consequence of what she heard she went home that night. She examined her child. She took her the next morning to Dr Robinson. Certain marks were pointed out to her by him. Hezekiah Betts of Clapham – he went home about 12pm on Monday. He went into the front room first. He went through into the other room. He found the man and his child there. Foskett was sitting near the stair door. His daughter was hitching herself back into a chair and hitching her clothes about. He went to his work and took his child. When he went back to dinner he told Foskett he had been committing a nuisance on his child. Foskett did not deny it. George Robinson of Harpur Street, St Paul Bedford, surgeon – last Tuesday he examined Mrs Betts’ daughter. She was very much bruised but no rupture. John Foskett – “I never meddled with her”.

item

Foskett, John,
Betts, Anne Rebecca,
Betts, Ann,
Betts, Hezekiah,
Robinson, George

CLAPHAM, Bedford St.Paul, sex crimes, surgeon, child abuse