The Wicked Boy by Kate Summerscale

he was ‘sick and tired’ of having these cases reported to him when he was powerless to act, and demanded that the law be tightened up. When a Peculiar father explained to him, ‘I stand up for the Lord’, Lewis returned: ‘You can lie [down] and die, if you like, but it is cowardly, most cowardly, to allow helpless children to do so.’
    On Wednesday 31 July, during the second adjournment of Emily Coombes’s inquest, the coroner dealt with the death of yet another Peculiar child who had not been attended by a doctor. Lewis berated the parents , saying that he was sure that they would have called in help if their pig or donkey had fallen ill. The parents did not disagree. They simply pointed out that the Bible said nothing about animals.
    A few new witnesses were heard on Thursday 1 August, the final day of the Coombes inquest: two dock constables and a marine engineer who had seen Fox in the week after the murder; the keeper of the coffee house at the end of Cave Road; and the headmaster of Robert and Nattie’s school. The sightings of Fox at the docks proved confusing, two witnesses claiming they had noticed him wearing a smart suit on days before it could have been given to him by Robert. The coffee-house keeper, William Richards, also seemed muddled about dates, insisting that the trio came to his shop with fishing rods on Tuesday, which was the day before Fox had been collected from the
Spain
. He added that Fox and Robert had been in the habit of visiting his shop together for the past two years; usually Fox arrived first and waited for the boy. Richards claimed that he had often tried to hear what they said to one another but had been unable to do so. The headmaster of the Cave Road school testified to the intelligence of both brothers, and noted that Robert had been very attentive during his scripture lessons.
    Nattie, who had been held in police custody since Monday, was then briefly examined again. He was not this time given a seat. He stood up to answer the questions.
    â€˜When was the first talk about going to India?’ asked Lewis. ‘Was that before your mother was killed?’
    â€˜Yes, sir.’
    Joseph Horlock, the foreman of the jury, asked: ‘What day was it that you first talked about the coughing signal and killing your mother?’
    â€˜It was on the Sunday,’ said Nattie.
    â€˜Did you ever ask your brother not to kill your mother?’ asked Lewis.
    â€˜Yes, once I asked him not to do it.’
    â€˜When was that?’
    â€˜I don’t know.’
    â€˜Was it before the Saturday? Before your father went away?’
    â€˜It was before he came home.’ The boys’ father had returned from his previous voyage on the SS
France
on Monday 24 June, the day before Robert gave in his notice at the Thames Iron Works. This suggested that the brothers had discussed the murder plan in the fortnight that Robert was employed at the iron yard.
    â€˜Did you ask him not to kill her before the knife was put up the chimney in your bedroom?’
    â€˜No, I said nothing to him.’
    Detective Inspector Mellish showed the jury the suit that Fox had been wearing when arrested. Inspector Gilbert produced the boy’s nightshirt that had been found hanging on a line in the kitchen. It was lightly spattered with blood.
    Lewis addressed the twelve members of the jury before inviting them to reach a verdict. ‘This case is one of the most revolting, heartless and unnatural ever presented to a jury,’ he said. He told them that their chief responsibility was to establish the cause of death, a matter on which Dr Kennedy had been very clear. ‘Not only was there one stab, which went through the heart,’ said Lewis, ‘but two, and the knife produced was found on the bed.’
    Yet, he reminded the jurymen, they also had the power to name the suspected perpetrator or perpetrators of Emily Coombes’s murder and to commit him or