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The Foveaux-street Murder.
(front the Echo.)
' On Monday, at the Central Criminal Court, before
his Honor Mr. Justice Manning (Mr. W. H. Coffey
prosecuting for the Crown), Maurice Dalton was
charged with the murder of his wife, Catharine
Dalton, on April 14 last, in Foveaux-Btreet, Surry
Hills. Mr. A. Shand, instructed by Mr. Hughes, of
Messrs. Hughes and Digby, was assigned by the
Crown to defend the prisoner.
The facts of the case were that the murder took *
place on April 14 last, in the kitchen of the house
in which the accused and bis wife lived. A Mrs.
Arthur lodged with them, and on the 14th April
she and Mrs. Dalton and the accused were in the
houso alone. The prisoner and his wife had been
living on unhappy terms for some time, and on the
day of the murdor there waa some ojuarrelling be-
tween them about the accused not trying to earn
his own living. Mrs. Dalton had expressed a de-
termination to sell off the furniture, break up the
home, and leave the place. The, accused asked her
to forgivp him but she refused. Mra. Arthur and
Mrs. Dalton then wentupstairB, each going to their
own roomB. Mrs. Dalton was not again seen
alive. Mrs. Arthur went out on to the
balcony in front of the house, and while
there saw the accused leave house and
go across the street. A neighbour living on
the other Bide of a lane opposite the Daltons
house, about 11 o'clock in the morning, heard Mrs.
Dalton's voice downstairs in the kitchen, saying,
"Yes, women are always jealous of their husbands."
She saw the accused come out of the house into the
yard and then return to the kitchen. She then,
went away, and on returning some time afterwards
she learned that Mrs. Dalton was dead. Mrs.
Arthur had in the meantime gone down into the
kitchen and found Mrs. Dalton lying on the floor
dead in a pool of blood. She gave the alarm, and
the police were communicated with. Subsequent
examination showed that a branding-iron, which the
prisoner was in the habit of keeping hung on a nail
in a shed in the back yard, though still hanging in
its place, had upon it traces of blood and some
portions of human hair. Senior-Sergeant Collins
arrested the prisoner about 11 o'clock on the follow-
ing day in the reserve at Dawes' Point. When
questioned Dalton said he had been there since the
previous day and had slept there that night.
Senior-Constable Chambers, who was the first
witness called, produced a plan of the locality and
described the scene of the murder.
Mrs. Mary Arthur gave evidence as to the terms
upon which the accused and his wife lived, and the
events on the morning of the murder.
Witnesses were also called for the prosecution.
No evidence was called for the defence.
After counsel had addressed the jury, his Honor
summed up at length. I
The jury retired at six o'clock, and at half-past
six returned a rerdict of guilty.
The prisoner, when challenged, had nothing to
say for himself.
His Honor, in passing sentence, said that the
prisoner, after a patient trial, in which he had had
the able' assistance of counsel, had been found
guilty on the clearest possible evidence of the ter-
rible crime of murder-of the murder of a woman
whom he had sworn years ago to protect, love, and
cherish. Since the jury had retired, he had been
informed that that was not the first time that the
prisoner had been in jeopardy of his life. He had
already served five years' penal servitude for a
crime of violence. That, however, could make no
difference in the sentence he was about to impose,
and he only mentioned it because he thought it right
that the jury should know that the prisoner was a
man of violence. The woman he had so foully
murdered had been a good wife to him. For years
she had kept him by earning a livelihood for her-
self and him. God only knew what had at last
prompted him to commit that fearful act. It was
quite clear to all who had heard the case that the
prisoner was satisfied that he could not get her to
work any longer for him. Whether it was then
that the prisoner had treated her as a beast_ of
burden that could be no longer of any use to him,
and therefore bettor out of the world, or whether
it was that he wished to have the whole of the
property that she owned, that prisoner alone knew.
No one, however, who had heard the evidence could
doubt that it was a horribly foul murder, and that
it had been committed by the prisoner. He would
be doing serious wrong if he led the prisoner to
suppose that there was any hope of pardon or a
change being made in the sentence it was his duty
to impose. . ,
His Honor then seatenced the prisoner to death
in the form prescribed by law.
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