Not all assault cases ended in favour of the victim.

In 1888 a young woman named Harriet Daniels claimed that she had been assaulted by a coal miner, one John Phillips in a first class railway compartment in a train near Ruabon in Wales, close to the border with England

It seems to have been a violent assault leaving Harriet dazed at the very least.

Unfortunately no there are no reports of the proceedings as the press were excluded from the hearing

I’m not sure why the press were excluded, perhaps because of the graphic nature of the victim’s deposition. The case did go forward to the assize court, but it did not end well for Harriet

Why and how, I simply don’t know, and not having access to the court records I can’t take it further.

While I was at it I tried using the free search facility at  UK census online to find Harriet, or at least give me some clues as to where to look. This wasn’t a great success. There’s no Harriet Daniels listed in the 1891 census returns for the pre 1974 counties of Denbeighshire, Merionethshire, Montgomeryshire or Flintshire, or the adjacent English counties of Cheshire or Shropshire.

In the 1881 census, there is a Harriet Daniels listed as living in Merioneth

who is listed as being a 21 year old servant. None of the press reports give enough detail to confirm that this is the same Harriet Daniels, and as domestic servants sometimes moved about checking the census records on Ancestry probably wouldn’t help much.

I’m guessing that after her failed case she left the area for somewhere, such as Liverpool, Birmingham or Manchester where no one would know her and she could start anew.

Searching more widely there is a Harriet Daniels of roughly the right age listed in the Staffordshire return for the 1891 census

which I’m guessing is the same Harriet Daniels. Since the name ‘Harriet Daniels’ seems to be relatively uncommon, searching the census records would probably confirm if the Merioneth and Staffordshire Harriets were one and the same, but I have no way other than wild supposition to show if she was the same Harriet Daniels as that involved in the failed court case (and just to add to the fun, there’s a Harriett Daniels in the 1881 census for Staffordshire who doesn’t appear in the 1891 census raising the possibility of a typo …)