Free The Wicked Boy by Kate Summerscale Page A

in the witness stand, he sat on a bench leaning against the shoulder of a ‘motherly woman’. He struck the
Evening News
reporter as ‘a poor little puny fellow. . . with a white face and eyes that bear traces of recent tears’. Though he had now been discharged from custody, ‘his little pale face is more full of fright and concern than that of the lad who stands in the dock’.
    After Inspector Gilbert’s evidence, Nattie was called to the stand. He seemed very anxious, and unprepared for his role as a witness. As a defendant, he would not have been called on to testify at all.
    Nattie answered some simple questions from Stephenson, giving his address and the names of the schools he had attended. His last day at Cave Road school, Nattie said, was ‘on the Friday before this was done’.
    â€˜You say “before this was done”,’ said Stephenson. ‘Now I want you to tell us all you know about it.’ Nattie spoke a few indistinct words and then started to sob. He took out a handkerchief.
    Baggallay intervened, and began to question the boy more gently, taking him step by step through the events surrounding the murder.
    â€˜You went to school last on Friday?’ asked the magistrate.
    â€˜Yes,’ said Nattie.
    â€˜That was the day your father went to sea?’
    â€˜I could not tell.’
    Nattie’s father had left home on the Thursday and had spent the night on board the
France
before sailing for New York on Friday.
    â€˜Which room did you sleep in?’ tried Baggallay.
    â€˜The other room.’
    â€˜Was that the room at the back?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜Which room did Robert sleep in?’
    â€˜He slept with mother.’
    â€˜In the front room?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    Baggallay indicated the knife. ‘Did you know he bought that knife?’
    â€˜The next day after he showed it me.’
    â€˜Which day did he show it you?’
    â€˜The next day after he bought it.’
    Nattie said that Robert had been cleaning knives when he showed him the dagger, saying, ‘I’ve got a little one here.’
    â€˜And what did he tell you about it?’
    â€˜He said, “This is the knife I’ve got and intend to do it with.”’ At these words, the spectators gasped and murmured. Coupled with the testimony of the Brechts, it seemed the starkest proof of premeditation.
    â€˜Did he say what he was going to do?’ asked Baggallay.
    â€˜He said he was going to keep it.’
    â€˜Did he say what for?’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜When did you first know your mother was dead?’
    â€˜The day it was done.’
    â€˜How did you know?’
    â€˜He came and told me.’
    â€˜Where were you when he came and told you?’
    â€˜In bed.’
    â€˜In the back room?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜What morning was that?’
    â€˜It was Monday.’
    â€˜What time?’
    â€˜Between 4 and 5.’
    â€˜Was it daylight?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜Do you remember what he said when he told you that?’
    â€˜He said, “I done it”, and I said, “You ain’t done it”.’
    â€˜Why did you say, “You ain’t done it”? Had he said anything about it? Had you said anything about it?’
    â€˜Yes I had, and said, “Are you going to do it?”’
    â€˜To do what? Had you talked to him about it?’
    Nattie did not reply. He covered his face with his hands.
    â€˜Did you talk to him before?’ asked Baggallay. ‘When did you talk to him about it?’ The magistrate and the boy were circling round the murder – or ‘it’, as both referred to it – Nattie evasively, Baggallay so as neither to lead nor distress the child.
    â€˜I think it was the week before.’
    â€˜Was that before he bought the knife?’
    â€˜Yes, sir.’
    At this point Nattie began to cry again.
    â€˜Now, what did you