Duffy's Flogging.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 193, 22 July 1873, Page 7

Duffy's Flogging.

At 10 o'clock on Monday, the 14th instant, the punishment of flogging was inflicted on a prisoner named William Duffy, who was sentenced at the recent sessions of the Supreme Court, by his Honor Mr Justice Chapman, to two years' imprisonment with hard labour, and in addition to receive 25 lashes with the cat-o'-nine-tails, for attempting to commit a rape upon the person of a female child at the Dunstan. The flogging was administered in the Stockade. Yard, in the presence of the Provincial Surgeon, Mr Caldwell, the Governor of the Gaol, and other officials. The prisoner, who is a somewhat slightly built man, was formerly a soldier in the 95th Regiment of foot. He was brought from his cell by Sergeant Watson, and appeared very pale from nervous excitement. The expression of his face was somewhat anxious, but he walked up to the triangle collectedly and steadily, as if he had made up his mind to the punishment, and after baring himseif to the waist by taking off his shirt, stood with his feet together, and a hand grasping each front leg of the triangle. The flagellator—a tall powerful man, formerly a boatswain in the Boval Navy—tied him with the straps, under the direction of Mr Caldwell, and then took his position with the cat, testing the correctness of the reach by laying it gently on the culprit's back. At the side stood the Provincial Surgeon and Medical Officer of the Gaol, &c, The signal having been given, the flaggellator swung the cat twice round his head to give the blow impetus, and with the third sweep brought it down on the right shoulder, drawing from the prisoner an exclamation of pain. The stroke was given with a will, and the track of the cords and dents of the knots could be traced on the skin—the pain evidently increasing as the strokes descended. We will not go into further detail regarding the effect of the lashes, and it will suffice to say that Duffy was well .and truly whipped, as he deserved to be.— Daily Times.