Alleged Attempted Murder at Sprotborough

A Staffordshire man named Henry Mincher residing at 8 Tickhill Street, Denaby Main, now employed at Denaby Main colliery, mislead 9:20 PM train from Doncaster on Saturday night and commenced to walk along the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire line to Conisbrough.

The signalman at Hexham junction stopped him and informed him that he was trespassing and that he was troubled by the highway. The man left the line and the signalman saw no more a miniature till 3 o’clock on Sunday morning he was discovered crawling on the line in the direction of the signal box.

On being interrogated Mincher, who appeared to be greatly injured, stated that he made his way to the high road, but as soon as he got there he was attacked by three men, who sprung upon him from their hiding place behind a hedge. He asked them where they were taking him on one of his assailants answered “We’ll show thee.”

They then dragged him across two fields in the direction of the railway, which lies at the bottom of a very deep cutting will stop major states that the three men threw him over the cliffs, near the Sprotborough bridge, onto the railway beneath, a depth of between 45 and 50 feet.

According to his statement he lay there for some hours before he recovered his senses, when he dragged himself along in the direction of the signal box. The signal man attended to the man’s injuries as best he could until 7:30, when he telegraphed.

to Dr Sykes of Mexborough, who, on his arrival, advised the removal of the injured man to the Doncaster infirmary, where he now lies.

Mincher’s injuries are not considered to be dangerous. Superintendent Blake, of Doncaster, was at once informed of the man’s statement, and proceeded to investigate the case, with what result is not at present been ascertained.

Mincher states that he does not know his assailants. When found on the line yet to large stones in one of his pockets. There are no marks of a struggle near the place where the man supposed to have been thrown over the cliffs, and the locality where the occurrence took place.

Mincher’s story is generally disbelieved.