THE CASTLETOWN ROCHE MURDERS.

Kumara Times, Issue 2818, 2 October 1885, Page 2

THE CASTLETOWN ROCHE MURDERS.

A witness of this crime has, it is said, confessed his complicity, and deposed to the whole facta of the case. The deposition is published in some of the Irish papers. The witness is John Duane, father of the young man Duane who has deposed to the making away of the bodies. Duane, in his first examination, denied altogether that he knew anything of the murder. His statement now is as follows :—" On the day of the murder, William Sheehao said to me, 'Johnny, you won't tell what I am going to do to-day.' He did not say what that was, nor did I know what he meant. This was about an hour before anything took place. I was standing in the yard just outside the stable door. Thomas Sheehan first went into the stable. William then followed him in. William got a griffaun that was inside the door. David Browne was then inside the door. William struck Tom Sheehan on the head with the griffaun. He struck him two blows. He was killed dead. William Sheehan and David Browne then crossed over and went into the house. I followed them over to the door. Mrs Sheehan and her daughter were in the little room below the kitchen. William Sheehan and David Browne went into that little room. William Sheehan struck his mother with the griffaun, and then he threw away the griffaun and caught her by the throat and choked her. David Browne took up the griffaun and struck Hannah with it, and knocked her down, and then caught her by the throat and gave a couple of screeches. They then asked me to assist them and take the bodies over to the stable, and I did assist them. There was no one in the yard then, as the little girl was watering the cows. I went down to the stable to see what they were going to do. The stable door was locked that evening by William Sheehan. I went home that evening to my own house. On that day he sent me away on business for a couple of hours. As I was going home that evening about six o'clock William Sheehan had a horse and car—it was a Scotch car—ready to go for Spillana. I heard the little girl talking about it. I did not see them that night again. I did not see Spillana at all. I came next morning to work as usual. He told me in the evening that when I was going home he wanted me to tackle the horse, and to come over again. When I came back I tackled the horse. Thi3 was after eight o'clock. I heard a concertina playing that night before I went with the car to the stable door to take out the bodies. There were Bandies lighted in the house. I saw the Misses Browne there that night, and David Browne and William Sheehan came out and left the girls inside. The girls did not come to the door to look out, or I would have seen them. They went across to the stable, and Sheehan and David Browne brought out the bodies and put them into the butt. The old woman was brought out first, the girl Hannah then, and Tom last. Tom's boots were taken off tbe night of the murder, and William give them to me. I led the horse by the head, and they followed. When we got to the well, it was about eleven or twelve o'clock. They threw the bodif-3 into the well. Tom was the first carried up and thrown in, the sister then, and then the old woman. I don't recollect what kind of clothes they wore. There was some blood on the cart. After the bodies were thrown into the well, they covered up the well with the whitethorn bush which covered it before. When we came back to the yard the girls were in the house playing the concertina. I saw them through tho window. I then im tackled the horse from the car. Browne went into the lionse wiiem the girls were. William Sheehan stopped outside, and ,

washed the car. William told me not to tell anything." Referring to the above the London correspondent of the Now Zealand Herald, writing on the 21st July states: "The trial of the Castletownroche murder has been summarily arrested by the daring intrusion of the Fourth Estate into the sacred precincts of Justice; for, owing to certain inflammatory articles which appeared in the local Press, the Judge deemed it right to postpone the trial to next assizes. This case has a colonial interest only from the. fact of New Zealand having been attempted to be made an asylnm by tho fugitive murderer, but the progress of the investigation is eliciting features of the most revolting character, and such as we do not commonly associate with the warm domestic affections commonly credited to the Celtic race. If the evidence given is true, not only did this man for the most inadequate reasons in cold blood strike down his own mother, brother, and sister, but joined in a gay and festive party before the blood of his murdered relatives was cold. The evidence of the informer, who was an accomplice, fully corroborated, leaves no doubt as to what the result of the trial will be."