📜 The Hidden Room of Colonel Ashworth Kent: A Summary 📜
The story centers on Colonel Robert Ashworth Kent, a decorated British military hero of the Victorian era, whose esteemed public life concealed a monstrous secret. The truth was exposed in 1889 by the courageous confession of a housemaid, Elizabeth Mortimer.
The Unveiling: Elizabeth Mortimer’s Discovery
Elizabeth Mortimer began service at the Ashworth Kent townhouse at 47 Grosvenor Square in 1886. While cleaning the Colonel’s study, she discovered a scratching sound behind a seemingly ordinary bookcase. She found that the bookcase was hinged, concealing a narrow, windowless room, described as 7 ft x 5 ft 8 in.
Inside, she found a terrified girl, possibly 14 or 15 years old, wearing a dirty nightdress, with a metal collar around her neck attached to a chain bolted to the wall. Elizabeth was initially too afraid to speak, fearing the same fate as a previous dismissed housemaid, Anne Witmore.
Three months later, the scullery maid she had confided in, Sarah Perkins, disappeared, supposedly for stealing. Elizabeth found Sarah’s monogrammed handkerchief (SP) in the hidden room, confirming her worst fears—the girls were being held and then disappeared. She kept silent for over two years.
The Catalyst and the Investigation
The turning point came in April 1889, when Elizabeth read a provincial newspaper article about the discovery of an unidentified female body in a shallow grave on the Colonel’s ancestral estate, Ashworth Hall in Derbyshire. Realizing the body likely belonged to one of the Colonel’s victims, Elizabeth walked into the Bow Street Magistrate’s Court and made a 3-hour-long statement.
Inspector Charles Makepiece of the Metropolitan Police led the investigation.
Grosvenor Square: Police searched the townhouse and found the hidden room. Forensic analysis by Dr. Edmund Hartley revealed grime, dried blood, human hair from multiple individuals, fingernail scratches on the door, and bolt holes where the chain had been attached. Beneath the floorboards, they found a small leather notebook written in the Colonel’s hand.
The Notebook: The notebook contained 37 dated entries from 1884 to 1889, listing girls’ names, ages (13 to 16), origins (orphanages, workhouses), and brief, chilling remarks like “unsatisfactory, disposed of after 3 weeks.” The final entry listed Emily Parsons, age 14, as “Current.”
The Full Scope of the Crimes
The search immediately shifted to Ashworth Hall.
Ashworth Hall: Behind wine crates in the cellar, police found another hidden door leading to a medieval undercroft. Inside, they rescued Emily Parsons, alive but severely abused, emaciated, and in profound shock.
Ashworth Covert: Using dogs, police located seven more bodies of female adolescents buried in shallow graves in a wooded section of the estate. Dr. Hartley’s post-mortem examinations revealed multiple fractures, strangulation, and trauma consistent with prolonged abuse. Most victims remained unidentified, but matched the notebook’s descriptions.
The Fate of the Perpetrators and the Cover-up
Colonel Ashworth Kent fled to the continent the day after Elizabeth’s statement. His body was found in the Seine River in Paris in August 1889, likely due to suicide or murder, but officially classified as drowning.
The investigation exposed a network of accomplices:
Mr. Stevens (Butler): Confessed to helping maintain the hidden room, procuring girls from workhouses, and disposing of bodies. Sentenced to life imprisonment.
Mrs. Douglas (Housekeeper): Knew about the hidden room and suspected wrongdoing, but chose “loyalty” and silence. Sentenced to 7 years of hard labor.
Samuel Jacobson (Asylum Clerk): Took bribes to provide the Colonel with names of vulnerable girls from orphanages and workhouses. Sentenced to life imprisonment.
Thomas Bartlett (Groundskeeper): Confessed to burying the seven bodies at Ashworth Hall. Found guilty and hanged.
The Establishment’s Role: Inspector Makepiece found evidence in the Colonel’s correspondence implicating at least six other wealthy men in similar activities. The Home Office ordered Makepiece to cease his investigation to avoid a scandal that would “destabilize the government,” protecting prominent political and social figures. Makepiece secretly copied his notes and evidence, hoping someone would find them later.
The Aftermath
The Ashworth Kent name was erased; the Colonel’s family changed their surname and scattered. Emily Parsons was given a new identity and pension but was permanently traumatized.
Elizabeth Mortimer was paid £50 by the Home Office and told to disappear. She married, had children, and lived quietly in the north of England, never speaking publicly about the case again, though she confessed that the nightmares never entirely left her.
The case was quickly suppressed. The houses were demolished or renovated to erase the physical evidence. The victims lay in an unmarked communal grave. The final documents, found by the narrator over a century later, confirmed Inspector Makepiece’s fear: the crimes were not an anomaly, but a symptom of a systemic problem where the reputation of the powerful was valued above the lives of the vulnerable.
The story serves as a testament to the courage of Elizabeth Mortimer, a working-class woman who chose to confront evil and, in doing so, saved one life and exposed a profound darkness beneath the respectable facade of Victorian England.
