Robin Longbottom examines the case of a jealous wife who was jailed after carrying out an acid attack

ON the morning of December 14, 1903, a deathly hush descended on the crowded courtroom in the Keighley Magistrates Court as a young woman – with the upper half of her face and head heavily bandaged – was guided to a seat by a nurse and Police Superintendent Tebbutt. It was the prelude to one of the most bizarre and distressing cases ever to come before the assembled magistrates.

Thirteen months earlier, Fanny Kenefick and her sister Hannah Maria had been employed by George Carter – veterinary surgeon, of Townfield Gate (off Cooke Street), Keighley – as cook and housemaid. Also in Carter's employment was Joseph Coulson, assistant veterinary surgeon. Coulson and his wife, Lavinia, lived in lodgings on Lawkholme Lane and had come to Keighley in 1901 from London. Unbeknown to his employer, and the people of Keighley, the couple had fled from London to find anonymity in the town after it was discovered that Coulson had married Lavinia bigamously in 1899.

One of Hannah's duties was to fetch Coulson to the surgery at Townfield Gate to cover for Carter when he was away. Lavinia thought that Hannah was “making eyes” at him and in March, 1903, she began to act coolly towards her and stopped speaking to her. In July, George Carter and his wife went on holiday and left Hannah in charge of their daughter, Nora. Coulson took them both out in the horse and trap and following the excursion Lavinia grew increasingly hostile to both Hannah and her sister and on one occasion struck Fanny across the face.

On the evening of November 18 Hannah was in the house alone looking after Nora when there was a knock at the back door. When she opened it, she saw what appeared to be a small man in a dark coat and with a black moustache. As he asked, in a Cockney accent, if there was any food to spare the moustache slipped from the face and she instantly recognised Lavinia Coulson, slammed the door and bolted it. A short time later the front doorbell rang and as she opened it Lavinia, now without the moustache, threw a burning liquid into her face. She instinctively shut and locked the door but then unlocked it and ran screaming into the street. Dr Dobie, who lived next door, dashed out to attend to her and had her carried to the hospital.

It transpired that the previous day, Lavinia Coulson had borrowed a dark coat, cap, trousers and boots from her friend Mrs Dixon at Morton Banks. As Lavinia was only five feet tall, the items belonged to Mrs Dixon's son. The same clothes were found that night by Superintendent Tebbutt at the Coulson's lodgings and Lavinia was cautioned and arrested. The next day a moustache cut out of black cloth was found in the backyard at Townfield Gate and some distance from the front door an ink bottle and cork were also found. Maurice Shackleton, an assistant at Taylor's drug store in Low Street, later identified the bottle as that brought in by Lavinia Coulson on the morning of the 18th and which she asked him to fill with oil of vitriol, better known as sulphuric acid.

After hearing all the evidence, the magistrates referred the case to Leeds Assizes Court. It was heard on Saturday, March 12, 1904, and Lavinia Coulson was found guilty of grievous bodily harm to Hannah Maria Kenefick of whom she was said to be jealous. The jury recommended “mercy owing to her husband's indiscretion” and she was sentenced to three years' imprisonment at Aylesbury Prison in Buckinghamshire.

Hannah Maria Kenefick, now blinded for life, became a hand knitter at the Institute for the Blind in Bradford. She died, aged 80, in 1962.