MURDER BY A LUNATIC.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4336, 11 February 1875, Page 3

MURDER BY A LUNATIC.

(From the Goulburn Herald, N.S.W.) At the Goulburn Police Court on Monday (the Herald reports) John McGaw, en remand, charged with the murder of Stephen Phillips, at Fullerton, was again brought up. Eliza Phillips, widow of the deceased, deposed: Prisoner lived about a quarter of a mile from where deceased was living at Fullerton; deceased was a schoolmaster; prisoner was in the habit of coming to see my husband ; for a month. or so before the 6th October I had noticed that prisoner was not right in his mind from the way he spoke and acted; on the Gth October I saw prisoner coming towards my house; I went towards the house, and prisoner came up l to me just as I got to the door and caught hold of me; I tried to run towards my husband; I was about a hundred yards from the house when I saw prisoner, and thought I could got into the house before he got up to me; it was about nine o’clock in the morning; prisoner seemed very much excited, running very fast; ho caught hold of me by the throat or shoulders; he said something about kissing me; I believe he threw me down, but I was too frightened and excited to know what took place; I called out, and my husband came to my assistance; when he came he said something to McGaw, but I can’t say what; before my husband came up, McGaw had left me ; I gave evidence before the coroner; I think my husband said, “Don’t come here again;” I can’t say what took place immediately after he left me; next saw prisoner kneeling on my husband, who was on the ground lying on his side; I said, “McGaw, you’ll kill my poor husband;” he said, “No, I am breathing into his nostrils the breath of life;” at this time a shepherd of Mr. Cadden’s named Wade came ujr and got prisoner away; I got assistance to get my husband into the house ; he was bleeding from the nose and mouth; the spectacles my husband wore were broken; one glass was smashed, and part of the steel; one eye, I think the left, was much cut about the ball; my' husband could not say more than “yes” or “no ;’’ after McGaw had left him we carried him to bed ; his left hand and foot were paralysed; he died ten days after; ho was in perfect health that morning ; we always considered prisoner a quiet inoffensive man, and an obliging neighbor ; we had been living there four mouths, and had no quarrel with prisoner. Dr. S. M. Morton deposed to having, attended a coroner’s* inquest on the body of Stephen Phillips on the 16th of October last, and to the injuries to the brain, and that death was caused by apoplexy, the result of external violence. Priscilla Mann, 13, who lived with the Phillipses, deposed : On the morning in question I heard Mrs. Phillips calling out, and I came out of the bedroom ; prisoner had hold of grandmama’s neck ; they were near the door of the house ; when I came out prisoner ran away round the corner of the church ; Mr.

Phillips, who had come out, told him not to come there again ; prisoner turned round, rushed at Mr. Phillips, and struck him in the eyes ■with his fist ; the blow knocked him down ; he ran away a short distance, and came back almost immediately; grandmama told him not to kill her husband, and he said he only struck him lightly ; 'he then knelt on grandpapa and licked the blood off his face ; grandmama told him to get off, and he got up and went away. Dr. Morton, recalled, in reply to Mr. Betts (who appeared for prisoner) deposed : I first saw prisoner in custody about the 7th or Sfch of October last, and attended him professionally as gaol surgeon ; lie was suffering then from an attack of acute mania, and was very violent ; I think Dr. Hayley also saw him independently from me ; we certified that prisoner was a lunatic, and he was sent to Sydney. Corroboz*ative evidence was given, and prisoner, who reserved his defence, was committed on a charge of feloniously slaying one Stephen Phillips, to take his trial at the next Circuit Court to be held in Goulburn.