WILLIAM Wright left the dock seemingly indifferent to his fate - he was sentenced to hang for the brutal murder of his partner.

There was little Wright could raise in the form of a defence. He was found standing over his victim whose throat had been slashed with a razor firmly clenched in his fist.

The tragedy was to all accounts completely at odds with the smith's amiable disposition. He was a popular man who plied his trade near Hook and the victim, Ann Collins, who posed as his wife, had willingly followed him there to set up home.

But Wright had a rival for her affections and when the flirty Collins disappeared for a month, he brooded.

However, his happy-go-lucky demeanour appeared to return when she signalled her affair was over and came back.

However, late one autumnal night in 1854, there came a piercing scream from the house, so much so that a deeply worried neighbour left her bed and rattled their locked door.

"After a few moments the door was opened and the body of a woman was seen lying on the floor on which there was considerable blood," said prosecutor Jonathan Hodges.

The horrified neighbour observed Wright standing over her body and then rushed into the night to raise the alarm. When a body of villagers returned, they saw Wright lying at her side. Collins was then still alive but within minutes she passed away.

Wright slowly got to his feet and muttered to no one in particular: "Tom Ackner is the cause of all this. She said she had been with another man.'' Wright went silent for a few moments and then began crying.

"Tis a very bad job and I'm sorry for what occurred but it was because of that man. If I had met him when he was with my wife, I would have killed him."

When the local constable arrested him, the tearful killer lamented how he had met Collins three years before in Yorkshire and they had quarrelled when she threatened to live with Ackner. "She threatened to cut my throat and went to a cupboard to get a razor and to prevent her from cutting mine, I cut hers.'' Wright denied murder when he appeared at the Lent Assizes but a guilty verdict was inevitable after Mr Justice Erle had differentiated between murder and manslaughter for the jury who found he had committed the act under a fit of jealousy.

"You have been found guilty of the most dreadful crime and all it remains for me is to pass the sentence the law awards to this crime,'' the judge told him. "Your days are numbered and I entreat you to use the time to endeavour by sincere prayer the mercy of God.''