## The Criminal Case The primary criminal trial resulting from the 1858 Bradford lozenge poisoning is recorded as ***Regina v. Charles Hodgson***. Initially, three men involved in the tragedy were arrested and faced charges of manslaughter: * **Charles Hodgson:** The Shipley druggist who owned the pharmacy. * **Joseph Neal:** The sweetmaker who ordered the "daff" to cut his sugar costs. * **William Goddard:** The young assistant who accidentally fetched the arsenic. ## Trial and Verdict Before the principal trial concluded, the prosecution withdrew the charges against the sweetmaker, Joseph Neal, and the assistant, William Goddard. Charles Hodgson stood trial alone at the York Winter Assizes on December 21, 1858. To represent the broader tragedy, he was specifically indicted for the manslaughter of one of the victims, a seven-year-old girl named Elizabeth Mary Midgley. Ultimately, Hodgson was acquitted and found not guilty. The court determined that while the deaths were a horrific tragedy, they were the result of an unintentional accident and a "chain of unfortunate oversights" rather than criminal manslaughter. Because the case ended in an acquittal at the trial level, it did not advance to an appellate court. Therefore, there is no formal appellate citation (such as those found in the English Reports) for this trial. It is most commonly referenced in historical and legal texts simply as the 1858 York Assizes trial of Charles Hodgson. Wikipedia Search User menu 1858 Bradford sweets poisoning Article Talk Language Download PDF Watch Edit Proud host of Wikipedia and other free knowledge projects Maybe later I already donated Close In 1858 a batch of sweets in Bradford, England, was accidentally adulterated with poisonous arsenic trioxide. About five pounds (two kilograms) of sweets were sold to the public, leading to around 20 deaths and over 200 people suffering the effects of arsenic poisoning. 1858 Bradford sweets poisoning A skeleton is dressed as a sweetmaker, surrounded by tubs and boxes labelled "plaster of Paris", "arsenic", etc. Cartoon in Punch, November 1858 Date 30 October 1858 Location Bradford, England Cause Arsenic poisoning Deaths 20 or 21[a] Injuries 200+ The adulteration of food had been practised in Britain since before the Middle Ages, but in the nineteenth century, with increasing urbanisation and the rise in shop-purchased food, adulterants became a growing problem. With the cost of sugar high, replacing it with substitutes was common. For the sweets produced in Bradford, the confectioner was supposed to purchase powdered gypsum, but a mistake at the wholesale chemist meant arsenic was purchased instead. Three men were arrested—the chemist who sold the arsenic, his assistant and the sweet maker—but all three were acquitted after the judge decided it was all accidental and there was no case for any of them to answer. The deaths led to the Adulteration of Food or Drink Act 1860, although the legislation was criticised for being too ambiguous and the penalties for breaching it too low to act as a deterrent. The deaths were also a factor in the passage of the Pharmacy Act 1868.