Anne Roche, an old woman of very advanced age, was indicted for the murder of Michael Leahy, a young child, by drowning him in the Flesk. This case, which at first assumed a very serious aspect, from the meaning imputed to the words spoken by the prisoner, that the sin of the child’s death was on the grand-mother, and not on the prisoner, turned out to be a homicide, committed under the delusion of the grossest superstition. The child, though four years old, could neither stand, walk, or speak – it was thought to be fairy struck – and the grandmother ordered the prisoner and one of the witnesses, Mary Clifford, to bathe the child every morning in the pool of the river Flesk, where the boundaries of three farms meet; they had so bathed it for three mornings running, and on the last morning the prisoner kept the child longer under the water than usual, when her companion (the witness, Mary Clifford) said to the prisoner, ‘how can you hope ever to see God after this?’ to which the prisoner replied, that ‘the sin was on the grand-mother, and not on her.’ Upon cross-examination, the witness said it was not done with intent to kill the child, but to cure it – to put the Fairy out of it. On her being charged by the policeman who apprehended here with drowning the child, she said it was not matter if the it had died four years ago. Baron Pennefather said, thought it was a case of suspicion, and required to be thoroughly examined into, yet the jury would not be safe in convicting the prisoner of murder, however strong their suspicions might be. Verdict: not guilty Anon [no title] (1826)