A comment at the time noted that Taylor was ‘not altogether right’ and this has to be a spectacular understatement. He followed a Mrs Taylor for a long distance, as she walked from Wressle House to Broughton. He had seen her in Brigg and decided to track her and attack her. As she reached a stretch of road near Castlethorpe, he moved right behind her and whispered threats, notably one she recalled clearly: ‘I wish she’d tumble.’ Those words clearly suggest a sexual motive, but he seems to have not gone beyond hitting her in the face. He lost his nerve and ran away towards Brigg, but not before he grabbed her dress and had another intention in his mind. When Mrs Taylor yelled out ‘Murder’ it did enough to deter him and he panicked.

The woman wanted justice, though, and that same night she returned with friends to Brigg and identified him. The police were called and Inspector Danby came to ask questions of the man. Luckily for Mrs Taylor there was a witness: Edward Whelpton was working in the fields that day and had seen Taylor on the road at the time given by the complainant.

What seems outrageous now is that Taylor, as the trial noted, had a track record of attacks on women and had indeed been found guilty. To make matters worse for him, he had run away to Barnsley and most likely hoped that the affair would ‘blow over’ and be forgotten. But he was wrong. He was sentenced to two months in prison and a fine of £2. 10s. or another month in prison. The impression made of Taylor is that he was a pathetic character who would try to do anything rather than pay for his errors; his mother pleaded for him, stressing the fact that he was a family man and had children; then Taylor himself begged to be allowed to simply pay cash rather than have a custodial sentence. None of this did him any good.

A strange parallel case at that time concerned a point of procedure; clearly drunk and disorderliness was a common offence, and Brigg has always been notable for its number and quality of ale-houses to cater for the casual agricultural labour clientele. But in one instance, an officer called Goodson had arrested a violent drunk and had not been able to obtain a corroborative witness. The simple fact was that decent and respectable people would not be around the streets and pubs late at night. The only option was for a constable to act alone.

Disorder in the streets was common at most times, but the chronicles of this area for the decade show that something about the time and place combined to make these villages quite dangerous places for people walking alone. There was violence always ready to erupt. A day before Mrs Taylor was attacked, a Welshman had been kicked and beaten in a saloon simply for his nationality. But Mr Pryce had not helped his cause by throwing a spittoon at one of his attackers.

It was a hard life for the farm labourer: long hours in the fields and a thirst to slake in the villages and market towns around Scunthorpe. This was surely a recipe for crime and sometimes serious trouble.