Perth Gazette and West Australian Times (WA : 1864 - 1874), Friday 9 May 1873, page 3


Supreme Court.

CRIMINAL SIDE.

(Before His Honor the Chief Justice and

Common Jury.)

WEDNESDAY, MAY 7,1873.

FORGERY.

Thomas Kirby, indicted for forging and utter-ing a cheque, to the amount of £10 4s. 6d., on the W. A. Bank, purporting to be drawn by J. H. Monger.

Mr. Molloy, manager of the Cooperative Store, proved that the prisoner tendered him the cheque in payment for goods bought by him. Mr. Molloy, not believing the cheque a genuine one, detained the prisoner and sent the cheque to Monger's Store to find if it was genuine or a forgery.

Mr. Reilly, manager of Mr. Monger's Store, being called, proved the cheque a forgery,

which

Mr. Hillman corroborated;

After a few minutes consideration the jury returned a verdict of Guilty of uttering.

Sentence - 6 years' penal servitude.

UTTERING.

Henry Abbott, indicted for feloniously uttering an order for goods, to the amount of £6, on Mr. Gull, purporting to be drawn by W. Harris,

on the Swan.

Mr. Gull, being sworn, deposed to the pri-soner having tendered the order, but knowing Mr. Harris' writing, said it was a forgery and gave the prisoner in charge.

W. E. Harris, being sworn, deposed that the order was not in his handwriting and he did not give him the order.

The jury, without retiring returned a verdict of Guilty.

Sentence - 7 years' penal servitude.

WOUNDING.

Maryanne McGarvey, indicted for unlawfully and maliciously wounding one John Lee, with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

It appeared that the prisoner went into Her-bert's Hotel, at Fremantle, and asked the land-lord for a glass of rum, which he refused to supply because she had already had enough. Lee, who was standing at the bar, remarked to the prisoner, " If the old gentleman said no, he won't do it." The prisoner then picked up a glass and threw it at his head, inflicting a se-vere wound on the left temple, in fact the wound was so bad that Mr. Herbert had to sit up all night with him.

Dr. Barnett's evidence proved that the wound was severe and caused great loss of blood.

The prisoner's defence was that Lee attempt-ed to take improper liberties with her, and she, infuriated at the attempted indignity, flung the contents of the glass at him, but unfortunately the glass accompanied the contents and caused

the wound.

The jury returned a verdict of Guilty and His Honor sentenced the prisoner to 6 months' im-prisonment with hard labor.

LARCENY.

Alexander Melville, John Delap, and John Gal-lagher, indicted for stealing lrom the dwellinghouse of George Marfleet a chest containing

42lbs. tea and 10lbs. lead.

The jury, after a patient hearing found a ver- dict of Guilty.

Sentence - 5 years' penal servitude each.

UTTERING COUNTERFEIT COIN.

George Tozer, a lad 15 years of age, indicted for uttering a counterfeit florin.

His Honor, after consulting with the Attor-ney General, directed a nolle proseguí to be en-tered, and the prisoner was discharged.

DEGREY RIVER MURDER.

Simon, Sharp, and Anderson, three natives were indicted tor the murder of Robert Shea, at

Roebourne.

Constable Glover, and his native assistant, Prince Tom, were sworn in as interpreters.

Mr. Parker volunteered to defend the prison-ers, and a plea of Not Guilty was entered.

Cundemara, alias Punch, a native, affirmed- Live on the DeGrey River ; recollect Shea and Miller going up to Mukkine on the DeGrey ; Miller stopped there and Shea went up the river but came back the same afternoon ; he went up alone, on horseback, and a lot of natives came down behind him ; the three prisoners were amongst the natives that came down be- hind him. Shea slept at the Mukkine that night ; the natives slept on each side of the whitemen ; they rose on the whites towards the morning ; Simon struck Shea first with the sharp end of the axe across the nose and mouth; he struck him a second time across the eyes, Three natives, not in custody, then struck him ;

and Anderson struck him about the head with a club ; two natives, not in custody, held Shea down while the others were striking him ; Sharp was there but had nothing to do with the killing ot Shea ; witness got frightened and ran away, and when he came back they had

buried him.

Cross-examined by Mr. Parker - Shea and

Miller went up the river after women, but they did not get any ; witness came down to Muk- kine after the natives, with whom were the pri-

soners; Shea had no firearms when he left Mukkine to go up the river ; he had left a dou- ble-barrelled gun at Mukkine. Witness first saw Shea southward of Mukkine, up the river ; Shea was riding, and a native named Paddy O'Leary was walking beside him; the native was going with him willingly ; Paddy O'Leary met Shea at Mukkine and took him up the river; witness had been in the lock-up several nights.

Re-examined by the Attorney General - Shea went up the river, previous to this last occasion,

to obtain women.

By His Honor - Miller was killed the same time as Shea ; Sharp was there, but could not see the two other prisoners striking Shea be-cause he was killing Miller at the time. Two natives caught hold of Miller at the same time Shea was killed ; when Shea was being killed Sharp told Simon to strike him; saw Sharp strike Miller with a club, after he told Simon to strike Shea; witness had been in the employ ot Mr. McLean, pearling; the three prisoners were also in the employ of Shea, as pearlers ; Shea went up the river to get these natives (the

prisoners,) to go pearling ; Shea had given them leave to go away and went to bring them back ; he told them to go back to the station to pearl, and they were willing; the natives were quite free ; the whitemen gave them some bread for supper ; the natives were sulky and stopped to kill the whites; the natives killed them for something about the women.

By Mr. Parker - Was close to the spot where Shea and Miller were killed ; was sleeping apart from the other natives, further up the river but not very far away ; a little further away from Shea than the river is from here ; was asleep the first part of the night until he heard the row, when he came up; Shea was not dead when witness came up.

By the Attorney General - Was awoke by the natives making a row; heard Shea say " Paddy O'Leary, come here and pull him out " Paddy answered, no. (Mr. E. Sholl was at this stage of the examination sworn in as interpre-ter.) Some other native had hold of Shea when he asked Paddy O'Leary to pull him off and O'Leary answered no; witness heard Shea screaming before he left the place where he was sleeping; when witness was lying down, before he came up; he heard Shea say to O'Leary, " You are a good fellow, don't kill me." It was daylight when the murder occurred.

James Glover, sworn, deposed - Am police constable at Roebourne, went to Mukkine and discovered the graves of two men about 200 yards from there; Miller was buried about 3 feet 6 inches down, and Shea 4 feet. On the 1st of December Shea and Miller went up the river. Shea was cut across the nose; such a wound as might be inflicted by the weapon produced; the other wound, on the brow, seemed as if it was smashed in ; saw no other wounds except those described. Miller was cut acrossthe lett eye, taking off a whole slice off his head. I arrested Anderson ; Shea and Mil-ler were buried in their clothes, rolled up in

their rugs. Charged Anderson with the mur-der ; I afterwards arrested Sharp.

Cross-examined by Mr. Parker - Paddy O'Leary was shot by Prince Tom : I saw him shot. Another native was shot, but I did not

see it. I took Punch on suspicion of being im-plicated in the murder. Simon was with one lot of natives and Punch with another. I sent four natives prisoners to Roebourne, Punch waa one of them. Punch was released because there was no evidence against him. Had no other evidence against the three prisoners ex-cept Punch.

(Mr. E. Sholl was here sworn in as interpre-ter.)

Prince Tom, a native, affirmed - Was with Glover when he arrested Sharp. Told Sharp he was arrested because he killed a white man. Was present when Anderson was arrested; An-derson said he did not kill the white man, he was at the Mukkine when he was killed.

The prisoner's statements were then read, Sharp acknowledging that he struck the whitefellow with a little club, but the other two (Simon and Anderson) said tbey did not kill

whitefellow.

The Attorney General then addressed the jury and Mr. Parker having replied,

His Honor summed up as follows - Gentlemen of the jury, the prisoners at the bar are charged with the murder of Robert Shea. The witness, whose evidence you have heard, is corroborated, in one instance only, by the statement of Sharp, who acknowledges he struck Miller with a club. The witness (Punch) states that he saw Simon strike Shea with a club, instigated to do so by Sharp. Now, in this case, it is very unsatis-factory that there is only one witness ; but, it is my duty, gentlemen ot the jury, to tell you that justice must not fail because of the pre-sence of only one witness. The only witness who speaks of the murder is Punch, and it is of very great importance that he is the only witness. There must be some inconsistency in the evidence, as the impression left on our minds, at the time of the examination in chief was, that he was present on the spot when the row took place which resulted in the murder of Shea and Miller. Now, gentlemen, we find, on being further examined, that he was not there. He tells you that he heard a noise, and in consequence of that noise, he then went up to where he heard the row, and up to that time there was nobody killed. You have heard what he said about Paddy O'Leary. It has been very properly suggested that the native (Punch) only heard this among his tribe, but to-day he comes forward and tells you he saw it himself. There were four natives arrested by Glover, the policeman, for this offence, one of them, (Punch) is released because there is no evidence against him, and then he gives evidence against the others, and, on his evidence, they are this day arraigned before you. It is for you to say whe-ther the witness (Punch) had any improper motive in giving evidence against the prisoners. It is my duty to tell yon, gentlemen, that if, in consequence of the evidence produced, you

have reason to believe Punch to be an accom-

plice, you must have some corroborative evi-dence betöre you can convict the prisoners. As I have previously stated, the only corrobora-tive evidence before you is the statement of Sharp, who says he struck Miller with a club ; but that will not convict him unless you find the other two prisoners guilty of the murder of

Robert Shea. You must be careful, in this case, not to strain the law against these men any more than in any other case. If you think the evidence of Punch not reliable, you cannot convict them ; but if you think it is reliable, gentlemen of the jury, it is my duty to tell you, you must; and that you cannot reduce the ver-dict to one of manslaughter. It does not ap-pear that Shea went to bring these men in un-der durance; if it had appeared so, you could have reduced the verdict to manslaughter, or justifiable homicide ; but no such evidence has been elicited this day, and the Court tried hard to obtain it. With these observations, gentle-men, you will please to retire.

After an absence of ten minutes the jury re-turned a verdict of Not Guilty.

Mr. Parker consented, on behalf of the pri-soners, that they be retained in custody until transferred to their own country.

The Court rose at 6.15 p.m.