THE REGENTS PARK MURDER TRIAL AND CONVICTION OF THE ACCUSED.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 300, 19 September 1888, Page 6

TH E REGENTS PARK MURDER TRIAL AND CONVICTION OF THE ACCUSED.

Ja»do\, Augu&t 10. Tju: tei.iblo fate of the lingleader in the Regent's I'.nk oata^tiophe will, ib ib hoped tene, it only lor a time, to check the genial exuberance ot our old friend Airy (or 'Eiry ab he piefeis to be called, and hia ''pals.''" ! You don't know this nuisance in the colonies yet. Melbourne and other large towns can of com so boast their "lauikins, ' : bul a"l;uiikin"'i- 3 unoblocrcatuiecorai)aiod with "Any. The brutes who bet upon poor young- Hum bold and his girl la-sb May were simply \ile cow aid* incapable even of being tiuo to one another. The first thought ot every man of the eight aftei their victim \\a* tound to be dead was, " Shall I be able to sa\e my bacon by turning Queen's evidence?" They f>epaiated \ owing solemnly to bo secret t > et witnin tuo hours e\eiyone' except the actual murderer had found his way to the Police Office on a telltale minion. The story itsell (as a murder '■tory) it of tho .simplest, in fact theie ha& been no mystet'v abuut the case from first to la^t. London, as tho "Daily News ' explains, contains many oiganised gangs of iou<_ r h&, and the prisoneio belonged to one of the. c c gang*. A hiend of then s had been attacked by another gang ; they oignnised an expedition to a\enge the outiage ; and meeting: two defenceless youths walking with their sweethearts in Regent's Paik, they took tho lifo oi one ot them in cold blood, on a suspicion (which proved entiiely groundleib) that he wa-j concerned in the original assault. The murder is sickening- in ics brutality and in ics cowaidicc. Theie were eijijit or ten against one ; and even at this odds, the knife thrust that hud the victim low was a thrust in the back. It is, if possible, fetill moie melancholy a.v an c\ideucc of the degradation in which numbers of our population live. Eight pti^oneib stood in the dock, and their aveiage of individual age was sixteen and n-half years. Yet these children, lor they wcie little more, were regu hilly banded together for violence, if not always for murder, and their relations with similar gangs in other districts were those of warring Indian tribes. Theie is a FiUvoy )Squaie gang, for instance, and there is a Jtfarylebone tload gang, and there is a blood feud between Marylebone Road and Fibzroy Square. Theio is also a gang- of " Seven Dials men, ' or '-'Deckeio," and ib may salcly be atrinned that theie are hundreds more. They piey upon each other, and tho gi eater part of their leisuie is deAOted to the prosecution of bloody vendetta which go a long- way to account for the deplorable condiFion of the London street*. Women and men, or rather, girls and boys, share equally in tho perils ot the encounter, and wlieie there is somebody to be knocked do.vi and jumpei upon, the chivalry on either side knows no distinction of sex.

In the prttent instance the original cau.se of oftence liad been then by an attack on one of the prisoners, named Cole. Cole and a young woman were walking ono night in the Marj lebone Road when a gang unknown came up and knocked both of them down. On this the vendetta was declared. Cole, attributing the outrage to the " JUarylebono lads.*"' induced his friend Cellatly to organise an expedition against I hem. (.Jcllatly was soon at the head of a force of boyish desperadoes, one of them aimed with a Unite. lie had no difficulty in iinding recruits — an invitation to join a lighting party seems the most natural thing in the woild in these circles. His fi lends accept or decline without surprise. One witness cannot join " because ho has got to :neet his young lady." Another witness is isked "if he will go up to Marvlob;:ne Koad to have a light"— that is all. When ihey reach the Regent's Park they &cc the avo pairs of lover.s who are .supposed to 3e members cf the obnoxious gang. They jo very methodically to woik They have iomc tor the vendetta, and they show somo ;avo in (selecting their \ ictim. Kumbold, ;ho mm tiered man, and Byrne, hi:* friend, veve about twenty yards apart, each acjompanied by his sweetheart., and llumbold saw dclibevately singled out for attack as

the supposed author of the outrage of the night before. Both were examined by the gang, and when io came to poor Bumbold's turn he was surrounded and twice stabbed. The girl by his bide gave the alarm, but she was instantly felled, aud she was kicked as she lay on the ground. Nothing could have been more deliberate than the crime from tii 8b to last Six of the pri&one-s were acquitted of the capital chargo in the earlier stage of the trial. Lee, the sailor boy who had lent the knife to Uellatiy, had a narrow escape of the gallows. There could be no doubt'bhab he had a shrewd suspicion cf the use to whiuh the weapon might be pub. The jury, however, were unwilling to convict him ot either murder or manslaughter, and he pleaded guilty to a minor chaige. Much of the evidence pointed to Oellatly as the muidcrer. He was undoubtedly tho leader of tho group that burrounded the murdered man ; he undoubtedly inflicted one of the wounds, and after the ah" ray he twice spoke of having used the knife. Upon him, therefore, Mr Ju&tice '-[awkina pronounced sentence of I cleaAh. HisexU^me jouth may yet tell in his favour, but in any case "he can haiclly escape a severe punishment. The direct evidence against him is no doubt anything bub unexceptional!- 1 ". The pMooners have been comicted mainly on the testimony of informers, and the informer, Cleary, who was him&elt one of, the gang, ha& nob a clean " record."' He must »a\e been quite a child when he was sent to gaol and to tho leformatoiy for theft. He is one of the failuieb of our'ieformatory system, as all his companions are the faihues of our social system.