TRIAL FOR CHILD MURDER EXTRAORDINARY CASE. YOUNG MAN PUNISHED FOR CONCEALMENT OF BIRTH.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 265, 19 May 1888, Page 6

TRIAL FOR CHILD MURDER EXTRAORDINARY CASE. YOUNG MAN PUNISHED FOR CONCEALMENT OF BIRTH.

lU\n> J\M)s Bhi,nn\n, a >oung man oi two or three and twenty joai.-, Mas on 2nd inst. charged in thcCcntralCiiminal Court, Sydney, that lie did. on July 17th, 18S7, murder a female child, unknown byname to the Crown L'rosecutor. Accoiding to the cwdenco, accused was H\ing at Beiry's Diish, with a daiiyman named Andcison, and in August, 1886, became intimate with a 15-year-old dau<. f htcr of Anderson's. The lcult of the intimacy «di a child, born in the garden, boinc distance from the hou^c. Ko one was with the mother at the time, and on prisoner'.^ coming home she acquainted him witli the lact. She did not see the child sub-eqnently, but accused told her it was dead. lie aKo told hei histei that the child was ali\c, and that he had taken it to a Mi.- Hamilton, ab Xoith Shoie, to whem he wa- paying one pound weekly fui its keep. No inquiiies appear to lioac been made b) any of the Andeison family, but doidc time afterwards a pioseeution toi forgery being tlneatcned against pri.sonor by Anderson, with whom ho wib in pai tner.^hip, he wrote mfoiming the giil and mother lhat he Mould, unlcs-s the pioccedings against him wcie stopped, l> put the police on to them for the child the} put away on Juno 28."' He did gi\e iniounation to the police, and at the station &aid he saw the frirl and her mothei cair> .^omethint* away from the hou^c and buiy it in a stump. Search \\as made at the place indicated, and in a stump coveicd o\er with brush the bones of a female child were found. Constable Leek, who arrested accused on another ehaige, &aid that when he was being taken to i ho station he accused Mi» Anderson ot bmying a child in Beny'.s Bu^h. He went -with the police to a place with Bronnan, and in a stump found some bones which MCieaftci wards handed to tho coroner. An inquo-t was held, and the c-haige ugain.st Mih Anderson broke down, the coroner's jury ictuming a veidict ot Millul murdei against Biennan. Margaret Jane Auder&ou wib the piincipal witness at the trial of liicnnan. Sho said piissoncr, who U\ed at her tathev's liousrc, came theie a^ a scivint about four ycais ago, and remained ior some time. Aftcuvardr-, in 1886, he went to Xcm Zealand, from whence lie corresponded with her in a puiely friendly \vi\). She replied without the knowledge ot her paients, and on his return to Sydney, in August, 1886, he came again to li\e with her father, whom he joined as a partner in September. When she discovered her condition she told him at once, bufc he dirl not, appear to treat the matter seriously, and she did not tell any one e^c. On July 17, last year, she went out with milk in the morning, and on her return put her hort-c in the stable, and £a\o biith to a child in the garden. After a little while sho went to Brennan, and told him w hat had happened, and then attempted to reach the hou^c, but fainted before she got in-idc. Eventually .she got to her bedroom, and her mother attended her. A couple ol days afterwaulrf Brennan was confronted with her by her mother in the room, and denied having been the cause of her Uoublc. (At this, stage the witness became very much dishobscd, and the Ciown-Tiosccutor desisted from his examination ior .some time) Subsequently prisoner told her the child \\a.s dead, and that he had buiied it. During the centennial celobiations she went with prisonci" to I'addington, and on the way thither he tod her the child Mas alheand he was keeping it at .Mrs Hamilton's, .Miller-street, North .Shore She expressed a desire to see it, and ho promised to comply with her request on the following Sunday, but on that day he wjw away from home, and he no\cr afterwards took her to sco any child. Evidence corroborative of the gill's statement in many particulars was given by her mother and sister, and the iuvy, alter a short retirement, returned a verdict of not guilty on the charge of wi fill murder, but guilty of concealment of birth, and the maximum punishment of lour years' imprisonment was inilicted. This is the first occasion en which a man has been found guilty and punished for the crime- of concealment of birth, and prior to passing the sentence Sir George lnnes remarked that the provision in the Criminal Law Amendment Act for the punishment of the man in cases of this nature was a very wise one Tho learned judge pointed out that prior to the passing of the amending Act tho woman only could be punished for concealment of birth, and the chief

offender, the cause of all her suffering and fcho sin which sometimes followed, could not be reached. In sentencing Brennan, his Honor said he would inflict the maximum punishment, as the case presented some features of terrible wickedness. No case which has lately been heard has shown the necessity for an enactment by which, in cases of supposed child murder, the male offender could be reached. Brennan, the seducer of an innocent girl of fourteen years, actuated by a desire for revenge upon her father who gave him into custody tor a iorgery, made a statement to the police, and subsequently confirmed it on oafch, to the effect that he saw the birth of the child, heard it cry, and was a witness to the disposal of the body after the little creature had been smothered in a bag. This statement was, in every particular, contradicted by three witnesses, and His Honor expressed the opinion in agreeing with the finding of the jury that the man had been guilty of gross perjury, and had forsworn himself in the terrible desire for icvengo upon a man whose confidence he had an cad y doubly betrayed.