Castletownroche Murders. Conviction of Sheehan—His Protest Against New Zealand Police. (From Our London Correspondent.)

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 141, 13 February 1886, Page 4

Castletownroche Murders. Conviction of Sheehan— His Protest Against New Zealand Police. (From Our London Correspondent. )

The second trial of Win. Sheehan terminated, as you of course heard by cable, in his conviction. The jury were in consultation for over an hour, and it was feared there might be a repetition of the previous failure. But all doubt was at an end when at twenty minutes pa3t three they had agreed, and handed in a verdict of guilty. The prisoner, in reply to the usual questions if he had anything to say why sentence of death should not be pronounced, stood up in the dock and made a long and partially incoherent statement. He protested his own innocence, and that of Brown. He dolarcd what Duane had said was quito wrong. Brown never entered his house. Would they be such fools, he asked, as to let a man like Duane see them commit a crime of this nature ? There was no obstacle to his getting the farm, because his mother was at all times satisfied to give him the farm. He contradicted hie brother in this respect, because his mother had been living at Kockvilles, and was but a short time living in the farm with him. There was no mystery about the matter, and he had a&ked his brother to write to Ennistymon and other places about his mother and sister and brother. James Brown was wrong, too, in his statement, and his (the prisoner's) own wife cculd prove the amount of fortune he received, and that it was paid over, why James Brown came and offered £260 odd as his daughter's portion, and priconer's brother was a witness of it His mother asked £300 for it, and the brother divided the|money. His mother was satisfied, and so was James Brown, and she was to give up everything on the farm but her things. As to the boots that were given away to Duane, they were his own boots. The dresd was one left by his mother, that she would not take away, and was it not a charitable thing to give it to a poor woman ? With regard to the boxes, it was true he had the boxes, but it was arranged between him and his mother that she was to take charge of them till he would want them, This wa9 a wrong charge, -he repeated, and be was surprised the jury were so narrow-minded as to act on the statemeni of a young convict. Thepiisoner then complained of his treatment in Auckland by Sergeant Dunn;, , the Irish policeman who went to arrest nim thei'e, and, referring to his arrest, said he was taken by six men in Auckland, who arrested him on the very day he was going to settle about a property he had purchased there. The prisoner showed remarkablo self-possession throughout, and awaited his sentence with extraordinary composure.

A Verbatim Report of Sneehan's Speech. I append a verbatim report from the Cork paper of thatportion of iSheehan's speech which dwelt with the Auckland police and of Juige O'Brien's sentence. Sheehan soid, after running over various points of the evidence as aforementioned :— " lam surprised that the jury should be so narrow-minded as to take the word of a young convict who was prompted by Sergeant Dunny. And Sergeant Dunny — he has the whole thing done. 1 had to report that man's conduct on the boat coming from Auckland to Wellington. I had to go to the kind -hearted governor of the goal and the president of the gaol in New Zealand, and I told him that he is a shame to Ireland, for he is nothing else but a downright brute. I met many countrymen, and I never met a bigger brute than he is. Be took me from the gaol and gave me in possession to a doctor, and he said he would not leave me come out of the colony without being pro perly treated. I didn't come to Now Zealand a poor man. I took a position in New Zealand, and I had property purchased there, and I had it only purchased two days when I was arrested. And I was coming into Auckland when that man camo to arrest me. He is called a respectable man. Five or six men came up on the l'oad — a by part of the road — and they rammed up against me like that (clapping his hands). They read out a statement against me, and I said I was never guilty of the like of that. Walker mado a wrong statement of what I said, and the other man (McFarland) told me that Dunny offered him money. Is that a proper thing to bring a man like that to swear a man's life away ? I have no more to say.

The Sentence. Mr Justice OBrien (addressing the prisoner) said — William Sheehan, after a trial in which every effort that could be made by ability on your behalf, you have been found guilty by the jury of the terrible crime of taking away the life of your own mother and your own brother and your own sister ; and I owe it to that jury, and to the justice of the community, to declare my most entire and absolute concurrence in that verdict. Without a violation of the duty imposed upon them by the law, it was simply impossible for a jury of the city of Cork, consisting of men of high position, integrity, and intelligence, to have arrived at any other conclusion. If young Duane had never been j examined, if his father had not been examined, I would have myeelfconcluded that the evidence against you demonstrated your guilt beyond all possibility of doubt. If the remains of your murdered mother and sister and brother had never beem found, I would have concluded from your conduct and language that you were the author of this crime. I have but, as the minister of the law, to announce to you your doom. It is not I that condemn you ; it is not the jury that condemn you ; it is not even the law condemns you ; it is your own crime that has condemned you. I have ho power to dispense mercy, and I cannot hold out to you any hope of mercy. I would be dis-

posed to eive you the mercy of my silence about your crime, and to cay not one word that would aggravate your painful and terrible position. But I owe it to the position I hold to say that you, William Sheehan, have been brought from the ends of the world by the arm of avenging justice to stand your trial here in this county, and to meet a charge, depending upon evidence long supposed to be buried in obscurity as profound as the grave, but which has risen out of the depths of the earth and the night of time to bear witness against you, are an awful example of the terrible consequences of a man being led by temptation or by passion — the passion of greed or other passion — to commit such an awful crime as that which you have committed against your own mother and brother and sister, in taking away their lives when they suspected no harm, sending them before their God with all their sins upon them by your cruel and wicked and treacherous deed. Yourahntteredroof-treein your native home, your owu approaching doom, and the death of your mother, and your brother, and your sister, are the end of your great crime. Your own end now approaches. Time for you, William Sheehan, ia all but over, and you have now to prepare for eternity ; and during the short interval of time that will be given to you to make your peace with God, I exhort you to turn from the vain appeal to human mercy that cannot be awarded to you, to that Throne of Morcy before which we must ail appear, and by which it is promised even that the deep scarlot of your awful crime may be made whiter than snow. FMr Justice OBrien then assumed the black cap.] He continued— The sentence of the court is, and I do adjudge and order, that you, William Sheehan, be taken from the bar of this court to the prison in which you were last confined, and that on tho 20th of January, which will be in the year ISS6, you be taken to the common place of execution within the walls of that prison, and that you be hanged by the neck until you are dead, and may God Almighty in his mercy have mei'cy on your soul. The Prisoner : Brown is an innocent man. He then turned round with a faint smile on his lips, and was led away to the cell below.

Another Victim. Another death was well-nigh added to the list of victims over the Castletownroche murder ea?e. Ifc appears the young girl Mary Riley, who was examined as a witness in tho trial of Sheehan, attempted on Saturday night to commit suicide. She and the othor Grown witnosses have been staying in apartments provided for them in Cork Bridewell. About six o'clock, soon after Sheehan's trial, Mary Riley expressed a desire to go to Duane's room. She appoared to be distressed, and a constable accompanied her. Duane was shaving at the time, and when he had done, the girl suddenly seized tho razor and drew it across her throat, She was immediately caught by the policeman in attendance, and the instrument was removed. Dr. Curtis was sent for, and he found that the woman was not in danger, the wound inflicted being only of a superficial character. Be dressed the injuries and ordered her to tho South Innrrnary.