THE MUSIC HALL MURDER.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 406, 28 September 1889, Page 3

THE MUSIC HALL MURDER.

The Accused Absolutely Insane and Unable to Plead. At the Central Criminal Court, London, before Mr Justice Wills, Nathaniel Currah was placed in the dock under an indictment charging him with the wilful murder of George Thomas Goring. The facts of the case are fresh in the minds of the public. The deceased, who went by the name of " Letine," was a professional bicyclist, performing at music halls and other such places. A daughter of the prisoner had been apprenticed to him, but after a time she became ill, and ultimately died. The prisoner seems to have laboured under the delusion — for such all the facts point it out to be that the girl'sdeath was broughtabout by ill-treatment on the part of the deceased. Currah seems to have long harboured feelings of revenge. These assumed an acute form one night last month, when he sallied forth to the Canterbury armed with a formidable knife. He waited at the door of that establishment until Letine arrived to take his f turn,' when, without any warning, he plunged the weapon into the roan's stomach, killing him on the spot There has since been no doubt as to Currah's insanity, both befoie and after the deed. When put forward by the gaoler the prisoner, who is a man of about 60, with a long white beard and of respectable exterior, gazed vacantly about the court. His tace and fingers were in a state of incessant twitching, and his whole, demeanour was that or a person unconscious of the place he was in or the proceedings of which he was the subject. Mr Mead, who, with Mr F. C. Gill appeared for the Treasury, at once informed his lordship that he was advised that the prisoner was not in a tit state of mind to plead. Thereupon the jury were sworn to decide as to his mental condition. Dr. Henry Charlton Bastian, F.R.C. P., F.R.S., was called and examined by Mr Mead. You have, I believe, made the question of insanity a special study ? Yes. — You have made yourself acquainted with the facts of this case ; you have read the depositions ? I have. — And you have seen the prisoner ? Yes, twice since he has been in prison. — As the result of your examination what do you say is the present mental condition of the prisoner ? He is at present of thoroughly unsound mind. — The Judge : I BUDpose it is in no way a doubtful case? There is no doubt about it at all. The man at present is full of hallucinations and delusions— of very much the same kind, too, as possessed him a tew hours after the commission of the act. — Mr Cluer, who appeared for the prisoner, did not ask witness any questions. The Judtre, addressing the jury, said he supposed they did not require to hear any further evidence. The prisoner was accused of murder, a murder of which, no doubt, they had all heard. He was convicted, in fact, tor stabbing an acrobat. Dr. Bastian, who was an eminent authority, had given his opinion that this was not a case of insanity on the border line, that the man for present purposes was hopelessly 'insane, and that he could not understand what was going on. Under those circumstances they would return a verdict accordingly, so that the prisoner might be detained until he recovered, if he did recover. — The jury returned a verdict that the prisoner was not in a fit state of mind to plead. — The Judge then directed that the prisoner should be detained during Her Majesty's pleasure. — Subsequently Mr Cluer applied that Cuirah's wife might be allowed to visit her husband — The Judge said he would impose no obstacle if the doctor certified that the interview would be safe. Sometimes the wife was the last person a man in the condition ought to see.