William Waddington

William Waddington was convicted of the murder of 7-year-old  Ivy Woolfenden and sentenced to death.

He raped her and battered her to death at 192 Edge Lane Road, Oldham on 14 February 1920.

Ivy Woolfenden had been playing outside in the street and William Waddington called for her to run an errand for him, giving her sixpence, and when she returned he called her into the house where he then raped her and beat her about the head, leaving her injured in the cellar. He then came out, locked the door and gave the key to a 10 year old girl who was playing outside, and he wandered off.

A while later William Waddington's mother returned to the house and after getting the key went in to find Ivy Woolfenden in the cellar severely beaten with her lower clothing removed and blood everywhere.

Ivy Woolfenden's head was battered in and there was a blood stained coal hammer on the floor. Ivy Woolfenden was still alive and they called an ambulance but she died when they put her in it.

They later found William Waddington on the Rochdale Road near Todmorden. He claimed to not remember anything. However, blood was found on his clothes.

William Waddington had been a spinner. At the outbreak of war he joined the King's Liverpool Regiment and served in France but was wounded in the chest. He was discharged in March 1919, but subsequently re-enlisted in another unit although he later deserted.

He was described as a man of indifferent character.

Ivy Woolfenden had lived with her parents at 170 Edge Lane Road in Oldham.

On the afternoon of 14 February 1920 Ivy Woolfenden had been playing in the street outside William Waddington's house with two other little girls, her 9-year-old sister and William Waddington's niece.

Ivy Woolfenden's mother said that the last time she saw her daughter alive was at about 3.30pm on the Saturday, at which time she was out playing with her sister.

Ivy Woolfenden's sister said that at about 3pm on the Saturday afternoon that she had been playing with Ivy Woolfenden and another girl in the street and heard William Waddington, who she knew, shout to Ivy Woolfenden, 'Come here, I want you to go an errand for me for some tabs'. She said that he had been standing at the door to his house at the time and that Ivy Woolfenden went to him but that she didn't see where she went after she had been talking to him. She said that Ivy Woolfenden wanted her to go but she didn't do so, adding that she was playing with another girl.

William Waddington's 10-year-old niece, who lived with her parents at 1 Higginshaw Road in Oldham, said that at about 3.30pm on the Saturday afternoon, 14 February 1920, that she had been playing in Edge Lane Road with Ivy Woolfenden's sister near to her grandfather's door when William Waddington came to his door and said to her, 'Go for that little girl of Woolfendens to play with', but that she replied, 'No I am going for another girl'. She said that William Waddington then said, 'I want Ivy'.

She said that she then went to Ivy Woolfenden and told her that William Waddington wanted her, but said that she would not go when she asked her. However, she said that William Waddington then shouted, 'Ivy come here', and she went to him. She said that he had been standing at her grandfather's door and that he said to Ivy Woolfenden, 'Will you go an errand for me', and that Ivy Woolfenden replied, 'Yes', and that she then went away and she went to play with another girl.

She added that she later saw Ivy Woolfenden go into her grandfather's house.

She said that she kept playing outside and that sometime later William Waddington came out of the house and said to her, 'I am going to lock up house as I am going out and I shall not be long'. She said that she then asked, 'Where is Ivy?', to which William Waddington replied, 'I don't know'. She said that he also said, 'Mind the door until your grandmother comes', and that he then went away.

She said that she then locked the front door of her grandfather's house and took the key to her mother.

A grocer who also kept an off-licensed beer house at 6 Higginshaw Road in Oldham said that at about 2.40pm on Saturday 14 February 1920, he had been in his shop with his 16-year-old daughter when Ivy Woolfenden, who he knew well, came in and said, 'Please can you give me change for sixpence?', to which he replied, 'Yes' and gave her six pennies. He said that she then said, 'A penny of this is mine', and then left the shop. His daughter also gave the same evidence.

William Waddington's brother, who lived at 1 Higginshaw Road in Oldham said that at about 1.30pm on 14 February 1920 that he met William Waddington in Henshaw Street and asked him to have a drink with him and they went to the Boiler Makers Arms in Henshaw Street and had a drink in the parlour.

It was noted that William Waddington had earlier been drinking in the Royal Hotel on Rochdale Road inn Oldham at about 12.15pm where he had had two drinks.

William Waddington's brother said that he left the Boiler Makers Arms after the drink and later the same day at 4.15pm whilst returning home over 'The Edge', by a footpath leading from Henshaw Street to Edge Lane Road, known locally as 'The Nip', with a friend, he met William Waddington.

He said that he had been about 150 yards from his home at 192 Edge Lane Road and was hurrying away in the direction of Henshaw Street. He said that his face was red at the sides and pale at the front and he looked very excited. He said that he said to him, 'Where are you going William?' to which William Waddington replied, 'Oh! Only for a walk', noting that he didn't stop but hurried away.

He said that when he got home his 10-year-old daughter brought him the key to his mother's house at 192 Edge Lane Road and that about two minutes later his mother and sister came to his house and he gave them the key to the door. He said that they returned almost immediately and that in consequence of what they said he went to 192 Edge Lane Road where he heard groans coming from the far end of the coal cellar and that when he went in with another man he saw Ivy Woolfenden lying face downwards on the coal with her face covered with blood.

He said that the bottom part of her body was all uncovered and he could see her legs right up to her waist.

He said that the other man then carried her onto the couch in the kitchen and he saw a large wound across her right eye and temple.

He said that he then went upstairs and found his brother fast asleep in bed and woke him up.

Her head had been smashed in with a coal hammer which was lying beside her. She had been outraged, and apparently William Waddington had attacked her first in a bedroom on the ground floor and then taken her to the cellar where he killed her.

Ivy Woolfenden was found to have been suffering from two large wounds on the forehead and a very large wound behind her right ear from which her brain was protruding.

She died whilst being put upon an ambulance.

The ambulance arrived at 4.55pm and a police constable carried her into it. He said that she had been alive when he picked her up but that whilst taking her into the ambulance she sobbed and died. She was pronounced dead on arrival at the Oldham Royal Infirmary.

William Waddington, after having a drink at a public house, walked about 10 or 12 miles over the hills to Todmordan where he visited a public house, saying that he had walked from Leeds. However, the Oldham police were quickly on his track and they arrested him in the street at Todmorden that night.

He was seen in Henshaw Street at about 4.15pm by a man standing in his neighbour’s doorway at 240 Henshaw Street hurrying along. The man said that William Waddington looked terrified and never spoke to him, even though he had been in the habit of doing so.

The licensee of the Woodpecker Inn on Rochdale Road in Todmorden said that he had known William Waddington for about 14 months and saw him come into his house at about 9pm  on 14 February 1920. He said that he was sober but terribly agitated, so much so that he asked him, 'What's up Bill, thou looks in a terrible state', to which he said William Waddington replied, 'I am buggered up, I have just walked from Leeds'. He said that he came into his house alone and had two half-pints of 'Old Tom' beer, staying for about half an hour before leaving with two men.

He said that shortly after the police arrived and he told them what he knew.

William Waddington then went to the Spinners Arms in Knowl Road, Todmorden with the two men, who he knew and who gave him 8d for his lodgings. They said that William Waddington said, 'I have just come from Leeds. I have only worked 2½ days since I left here'. They said that after William Waddington had a pint of beer, for which they paid, he told them that he was tired and was going to bed and left the house.

A detective constable said that at about 6pm he started from Oldham with another detective sergeant and William Waddington's father in a taxi in search of William Waddington. He said that they visited several places in Royton and Rochdale and then proceeded to Todmorden by way of Littleborough and Walsden.

He said that when they reached Todmorden they split up, William Waddington's father going off with the other detective sergeant and he going off with a police constable and the taxi driver.

He said that at about 10.15pm whilst in Rochdale Road, Waterside, Todmorden, he noticed a man that matched William Waddington's description  coming towards him and stopped him and said, 'Hello Billy', and that William Waddington replied, 'Hello'. He then asked him his name and he replied, 'Billy Waddington'. He said that he then cautioned him and told  him that he was arresting him on suspicion of having caused the death of a girl at 192 Edge Lane Road sometime that afternoon.

He was then taken to Wier Street Police Station which was not far away where he was found to have had several scratches and finger nail marks on his hands and to have many bloodstains on his clothes.

His clothes were taken as evidence and he was then supplied with other clothing and taken to Oldham. When he was told that he was being taken there on suspicion of murder, William Waddington said, 'Oh! I know nowt about it, I went to my work until dinner time, then went to the Royal and stopped until turning-out time. I went home and had my dinner and then came on to see my pal and that's all I know'.

When detectives examined 192 Edge Lane Road they found blood in the cellar as well as blood on a bolster on a bed in the front room downstairs. They also found blood on a pair of moleskin trousers in the kitchen as well as on the table and on a bed-tick.

In the cellar they found two patches of blood on the floor between which they found a penny and bloodstains on the hand rail alongside the cellar steps. They also found a coal hammer with blood and brain matter on it as well as several blood splashes and a rag with wet blood on it.

Ivy Woolfenden's body had been 3' 9½" long and well nourished. She had the following injuries:

1. An incised wound on her forehead.
2. A punctured wound to the right side of her forehead.
3. Swollen right eyelids.
4. Bruise over her left cheek.
5. Bruised left eyelids.
6. Bruise on outer edge of forehead over left eye.
7. Superficial cut below left lip.
8. Blood oozing from right ear.
9. Top portion of right ear cut below which there was a small punctured wound 1⁄8 " in diameter exposing bone and brain, and immediately behind that two other punctured wounds exposing bone and brain.
10. The right side of the head above the ear was a punctured wound exposing a fractured bone and brain.
11. Large superficial bruise over upper part of chest at junction of wind pipe and chest.
12. 4 bruises on left arm.
13. Back of right hand bruised.
14. Fingers covered with coal dust.
15. Blood-stains on both thighs above knees.
16. Blood oozing from vagina with posterior wall and hymen ruptured.
17. Skull extensively fractured, on right side a part of the frontal, temporal and parietal bones were broken in fragments, the fractures extending through the occipital bone and continued through the natural sutures on the left side, almost separating the vault from the base of the skull.
18. Effusion of blood into both eye sockets.
19. Right lobe of brain lacerated with bone splinters embedded.
20. All other organs were found to be normal.

Her cause of death was given as fracture of skull causing laceration of brain.

The only defence at his trial was that the evidence was circumstantial and insufficient.

William Waddington was convicted at the Liverpool Assizes on Wednesday 21 April 1920 and executed at Liverpool on 11 May 1920. The jury were ten minutes in arriving at their verdict and when William Waddington was asked whether he had anything to say, he replied, 'I don't know'.

Ivy Woolfenden's funeral was held on Thursday 19 February 1920. It was reported that girls from the mills along the route left their work to watch the procession pass. Eight little classmates attended the service at the house and the coffin was carried to the grave by four Boy Scouts.

Most of Edge Lane Road and its original housing has since been demolished.