A YOUTH SENTENCED TO DEATH.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2146, 10 April 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

A YOUTH SENTENCED TO DEATH.

At the Liverpool Assizes, Michael Lavelle, aged 16, a sawyer's assistant, was tried for the wilful murder of Maxwell Kirkpatrick, a Bawyer, on the Ist February. The deceased worked at a timber yard in Byron-street, Liverpool, and had previously worked at another yard where the prisoner was employed. It appeared that there had been some bad feeling between the two, which the prisoner ascribed to his having been " bullied " by the deceased, whom he accused of causing his discharge. About •even week« ago the deceased called the prisoner an "Irish pig," and the prisoner was heard afterwards to threaten that he would be hung for Kirkpatriok if he did not leave him alone, and again to •ay that Kirkpatrick's time would be short. On the afternoon in question the deceased and another man were going home from their work, when the prisoner went belaud the deceased and dealt him a blow on the head with an iron roller, the effect of which was to render him insensible. He recovered in about five minutes, and was able, with assistance, to walk home, but be died the next morning from the blow. The jury found the prisoner "Guilty of murder," and sentence of death was passed. The prisoner, who cried bitterly during the whole of the time, was strongly recommended to mercy by the jury.