The Panmure Murder

Feilding Star, Volume V, Issue 76, 7 June 1884, Page 3

The Panmure Murder

The correspondent of the Otago Daily 'limes supplies th^ following ' details of this dreadful affair : — I he horrible crime known as the Panmtire murder has beea before the Court last week, and has resulted in th con viction of the man (Henry Morgan) charged with the heinous uffi-nce. Pamnure is a amall country township in the vicinity of Warrnambool. On 17th November last M rgnret Nolan, v little girl just over t^n year.-, of age, was sont by her mother, a Mnall farmer's wife, into Panmure with eggs and butter. *She left at .'] o'clock in the afternoon, vent into the township, sola the articles, and returned <iv her wsiy home, but she never reached her destination alive. Her parents, alarmed at her absence, searched for her, and next morning rhe dead body oi the uniortunate child was found in some tern by the roadside, be had been subjected t<> brutal outrage, and hi r throat cut. suspicion ill) media' el)' fell on Morgan, a farmer wish a grown-up fauiilv. residing id the neighbourhood. . ituess after witness indeutitied him us having been seen in the company of the child, he riding a black horse anil talking to her as she walked homewards, i/ne wuman oaw a dark horse standing ne.ir the corner of th paddock where the deed was committed, the supposition bein.^r that thi.was at the very time when, dismounting from the animal, the inhuma miscreant was engaged in his toui deed. His kuife was subsequently found an ong t c fern, the bla < clotted wi;h blood ; ih>- ciothes h wore were bi< od-tuined. He declared his innocence. He asserted that hi* life had been sworn away tiv false and rained witnesses. '1 he jury returned a verdict of guilty, and the Ju<ige (Mr Justice Higinbuthani), in recording sente; cc of death, declared that he I'ullj c .ucurred in the decision. After sentence he wrote to hi* wife, telling her to go to chapel as often as she cou d, and that he hoped to meet her ami the children in heaven. He has i>een removed to the Ararat Gaol, where his execution will be carried nut