SUPREME COURT, DUNEDIN.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 181, 29 April 1873, Page 6

SUPREME COURT, DUNEDIN.

On Monday, April 22, Thomas Ryan was again placed on his trial on a charge of having, on the 4th January last, shot at Detective Farrell with intent to murder him. Six jurymen were challenged by Mr Haggitt, (for the Crown,) and one by Mr Barton, (for the prisoner.) Detective Farrell was first examined. In cross-examination, he stated that no reward had been offered for the capture of the Sydney absconding bank clerk ; he had told Ryan on one occasion when questioned on the matter, that he was to get £3OO, but he did so only because he thought the question was an idle one. In reply to Mr Barton, he stated there was a mortgage on his house and land ; and the reason he did not say so at last trial was that he was not asked. He had owed White, his grocer, money for the last two or three years, and now owed him £2O or £3O. The following is the concluding portion of his examina tion by Mr Barton : You found Ryan and your wife under circumstances which you thought improper? Yes. Did you think any unchastity had taken place between them at that time ? I never suspected my wife's dishonesty until [ saw what happened in May, 1870. You suspected then that there was an illicit intercourse? 1 did not : but L thought it was highly improper of a married woman to be sitting on his knee. Were you not aware of some other little transactions of your wife before that time, not connected with Eyan at all? I was not. Do you swear that you were not acquainted, and are not acquainted now, with the circumstances of an investigation that took place at Tuapeka when Branigan was Commissioner ? Will you swear that your wife's letters were not produced there—her letters to Branigan ? No, she never wrote to him in her life. Mis letters to her were produced? Yes. [ln next day's Times, Farrell states that his answer here is reported wrongly ; he answered No, not Yes.] Witness added : The enquiry at Tuapeka did not refer to my wife, or to Mr Branigan either ; it was relative to a charge against Mr Morton. Witness, being examined on another subject, said he did not, in conversation with old Greenford, an old lag, say that if he had not recognised llyan as the person who shot him, he would have put it down to Cunningham, another old hand. What he did say was that if his dead body had been picked up in the street, it was possible that the crime might have been put down to Cunningham, who was in the Theatre that night. The witnesses examined previously gave evidence again, and the Court then adjourned. On Tuesday, after one or two unimportant witnesses were heard, Sub-Inspector Mallard was called. In his cross-examination, he gave the following new evidence : Were any bullets found ? There was a cartridge—a patent one—found by Mr Davis, of the Water Works Company. His Honor : Aln : exploded cartride? No, your Honor. Mr Barton : Where was it found ? It was found in the back yard of Davis's house. Mr Barton : But lam not acquainted with his house. His Honor : Where is Davis's house ? Immediately opposite Brodrick's coal office in Stuart-street. Mr Barton : Have you got that cartridge ? Witness produced the cartridge and explained: 1 a:n wrong in what I said ; this cartridge was found on the roof of a shed in Moray-place, on Sunday, the sth January. That is the afvernoon of the day following the night on which the shots were tired ? Yes. Was any other found ? A piece of a bullet that had passed through a pistol was found in Jago's store. Have yon that hall? I have not. It is in possession of Sergeant Neill, of Port Chalmers, who found it. Was the bullet weighed ? It was sent to M r Mills, gunsmith, and he could give me no satisfactory information regarding it. Was there any other bullet found ? No, not to my knowledge. Mr Barton, having examined the cartridge, asked that the .lury should see whether there was any bullets in the box found in prisoner's room like the cartridge which was produced as having been found on the roof of the shed. AVitness : Of course the cartridge is a different kind of ammunition altogether ; it is entirely different; you can purchase ib anvwhere ; it is quite a different kind to any I found in the box. This is a patent cartaidge, and is tired without a cap; th: others are not, and are fired with a cap. Mr Barton : A pistol loaded with that kind of ammunition would have no flash or smoke from the nipple ? There would be a flash from the mouth, but neither powder nor smoke from the nipp'e. Witness, who had said that prison! r's boots were wet but not muddy, was now asked by Mr ilaggitt: Is there not a great deal of grass in Cattlestreet, and could not a person running through the street get his boots cleaned as he went along? and the answer was in the affirmative. This was the case for the prosecution. For the defence, Robert Hume, a new witness, was called. Four previous witnesses had sworn that when Mrs Farrell came to the door, she had a night-dress on ; but Hume declared that she was dressed in black stuff. She seemed to have dressed hurriedly. James M'Laren, a tailor, also a new witness, said he lived in Moray-place, and had for eight years. His house was in front of Farrell's house. For several weeks before the night of the shooting, ho had noticed some one lurking about the streets ; and on one occasion he ran .against this some one. He knew Ryan by appearance, and he swore the man was not Ryan. On the night of the shooting he had been at his own house about nine o'clock. But he had seen nothing of the lurking individual. That night was the darkest night on which he had ever passed through Moray-place. The colour of a man's clothes could not be discerned at two yards' distance on that night—much less twenty or thirty. Frequently, for fear of the lurker, he had gone home by Stuart-street, instead of going direct by Moray-place. Mr Barton and Mr HaggitC then addressed the jury. His Honor summed up, and the jury retired at 5 o'clock to consider their verdict, and at 20 minutes to 7 returned into Court with a verdict of Not Guilty. Ryan was at once discharged from custody.