AN UNUSUAL CASE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3767, 1 June 1907, Page 2

AN UNUSUAL CASE.

Second trial for Murder. Sanity Recovered. Sydney, May 30. An unusual case, in which a man appeared for trial a second ' time on a charge of murder, was before the Court here to-day. Richard Riley killed Rose Arnold on May 28th, 1906, was sentenced to death in May, declared in June to be insane, and consequently placed in an asylum. Medical evidence having shown that Riley was suffering from delusional mania and had recently recovered his sanity, he was again placed on trial. The prisoner made a statement that insanity had been produced by mental troubles occasioned by the girl. He did not feel as a guilty man, nor did he bear a guilty conscience. It had pleased God to deprive him of his reason, and God would not hold him responsible for what he did while in that state. [Rose Arnold, a barmaid, was murdered in a lodging-house at Surrey Hills. She had been shot in four places, and her head almost severed by a razor-cut. Riley was found lying by her side, with a bullet wound in the face and his \ throat cut. He afterwards confessed to the murder. The cause of the tragedy was jealousy. The evidence of the trial disclosed that Rose Arnold was married. Her husband was supposed to be in New Zealand, where it was also believed her sisters resided.]