The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-22 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, AtTGUST 22, 1863.

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

NORTHERN CIRCUIT.—LivEurooL, AUG. 21.
CROWN COURT.
(Before Mr. Justice Blackburn.)
James O'Brien, aged 26, was indicted for having, on the
20th of June, at Liverpool, feloniously killed and mur-
dered Elizabeth Callaghan. As the name of the deceased
was not positively known, the prisoner was also indicted for
killing a person unknown.
Mr. Deighton and Mr. Samuells appeared for the prosecu-
tion, and Mr. Popo defended the prisoner.
The prisoner, it appeared, shortly before the 20th of
June, arrived in this port, and about four o'clock on that
morning he met with a woman named Mary Ann Mathers, in
Lime-street. They went to a public-house and had some
ale, after which they proceeded to the house kept by the
deceased, in No, 5 Court, Spitalfields. The woman remained
ee tshe, The
woman
deceased,
with the prisoner until he fell asleep, when she took Is. out
of his trowsers pocket. At that time there were five half.
downstairs sovereigns
andan
procured
d somesilver
his
some
ale, l3k
whiche
several times, taking in all about 6s. After this the deceased
went upstairs, and aeonalter
and some other persons in the house drank. She repeated this'
found that four half-soveregns,had been taken out of the
Mather followed her, and
i
prisoner's pocket. She awoke the prisoner, who got up and
accused the deceased of robbing him of his money, but she
denied it. The prisoner then left the house with Mather,and,
after visiting a publichouse, they went to thepolice-office,and
informed a constable of the robbery, but he said that the police
could do nothing for him, and. heth en went away, evidently
saying that he would have satisfac-
tion [Leh dissatisfied. 1 hey again visited several publichouses,
the. constable told him that he must
and returned to the police office,
.when the prisoner requested
the officers to have all the parties in the house apprehended ;
but the police told him that. they could do no such thing,
tiTheon of prisoner
snoewr
not carry out this intention or he would get himself into
nth,enwhleefut,
trouble. The prisoner, accompanied by the woman Ma-
ther, then went to a cutler's shop directly opposite the
police-station, and purchased a sheath-knife, and borrowed
a stone, on which he sharpened it. The woman, fearing he
was about to commit some act of violence, made a motion to
the shopkeeper for him
it up,
let the prisoner have the
knife, but he would not give up, as he said he had paid
for it. They then left the shop and took a cab, the woman
telling the cabman to drive to Hotham-street ; but the pri-
soner said i 1 No, drive to No. 5 Court, Spitalfields." The
cabman drove them there and the prisoner went up the
court, when he met the deceased, who threw her arms round
his neck and called him her sweetheart. They went into the
house, and the prisoner sent for half a gallon of ale, and as
he was drinking a glass of ale he said, "Don't you think I
am a generous chap to come back and treat you after being
robbed of £5 ?" to which one of the women replied, " Yes,
I did not think you were so generous." The prisoner then
shut the door, and drawing the knife he had just before
purchased from his breast he rushed upon the deceased, and
stabbed her in the lower part of the stomach. She fell off
the chair, and was conveyed to the Northern Hospital,
where she soon after died. The prisoner after ho had stabbed
the deceased left the house, and got into the cab, telling the
driver to take him away; but as the cabman had heard cries
of " Murder I" he thought there was something wrong, and
he called the first policeman he saw and gave the prisoner
into custody, when the knife was taken from him. The
prisoner was sober, and appeared perfectly calm and col-
lected.

The jury, after a few minutes' consultation, without leav-
ing the box, returned a verdict of guilt) of wilful murder.
His Lordship then assumed the black cap, and proceeded
to pass sentence of death in the usual terms, at the same
time telling the prisoner that he had been found guilty du
the clearest possible evidence, and that he need not enter-
tain any hope of mercy on this earth.
The prisoner, who conducted himself with great propriety
and evidently felt the position in which he had placed him-
self, was then removed from the bar. •
nioGuesolyrgme
murdered his
edhaisg
street, Liverpool. wife on was charged
2chlsatrogfedjuwnieth,
happily
his wife. About 7 o'clock on the night in
Mr. Proston and Mr. Potter appeared for the prosecution,
and Air. Littler defended the prisoner. with
It appeared that the prisoner lived most un
t* n he
rovided
her with the means to get any. Some w
ath having ng
Circusfelo
not provided
her ensued, and
re-
turned home under the influence of drink andq
dues askedw for his
supper, to which deceased replied that he had
the deceased struck him a blow on the face. Later
the
evening the deceased was going into the house, when the
prisoner rushed out of his room. The deceased called out,
" Oh, see what he has got in his hand 1" and immediately
afterwards she gave a aeream and ran into the kitchen,when
it was found that she bad been wounded in the side, and was
bleeding most profusely.
The prisoner, after inflicting the
wound, returned to his own room, where ho was apprehended
with a long chisel in his hands, on which were marks of
blood. Au attempt was made to convey the deceased to the
Infirmary, but she was too weak to move, and, after suffer-
fag most acutely, she (lied on the 27th, six days after the
injury had been inflicted.
Ibigehotf lioapvieniodniedthfartomit
For the defence iqwas urged, from the evidence given by
was occasioned by the violence of the prisoner,
nthaettimr:ldic(a!aulsmese;n,btuirtasthtohnelrclieteir;:s
jeudrn,
the evidence
brought forward would justify them in returning a verdict
going
o f hisad ,
through i.e as o , andt the
e
of manslaughter, as it was evident at the time he inflicted
the
wife,w "ho appeared
ahpep
ewasare
da
throughif
he
w drinka s bereftgog ra
did not know what he was about; or, to use the words of his
effects of drink and dissipation."
The jury returned a verdict of guilty of manslaughter, and
His Lordship sentenced the prisoner to bo kept in penal
servitude for the remainder of his life.
Elizabeth Benyon, aged 17, was indicted for the wilful
murder of her child, Joseph Benyon, aged 12 months,
Mr. Hizgin
prosecuted, and Mr. Pope defended the pri-
soner.

This case in its circumstances was a most painful and

horrible one. It appeared that the young woman, the pri-
soner at the bar, lived at a poor lodging at Eccles with her
infant child. Oa Monday night, the 15th June last, she
left her lodgings, taking her child with her, and she was
seen with it near the river at half-past 11 o'clock that
night. She did not return home till 8 o'clock next morning,
when she had not the child with her. On being asked what
had become of the child she said she had given it to a
woman whom she did not know to bring up for her. This
account not being deemed satisfactory she was taken into
custody by the police, and she then made a statement to
them that she had tied a stone round her child's neck and
thrown it into the river, at a spot which she afterwards
pointed out to the police, and that she had done so at the
instigation of a man whose name she mentioned. The river
was dragged, and at the spot pointed out by the prisoner
the body of her child, with a stone tied to its neck, was
found, as described. It was elicited from one of the wit-
nesses that the prisoner had complained that her father
had repeatedly forced her to have incestuous connexion
with him, and had at last turned her and her baby out of
doors to starve.

The defence urged was that the treatment the prisoner
had received from her own father and her wretched condi-
tion and prospects had had such an effect on her mind that
in a fit of wretched despondency she had done what she
had done scarcely conscious what she was about,
The learned judge having summed up,
The jury found the prisoner guilty of wilful murder, but
with a strong recommendation to mercy.
His Lordship said he would send this recommendation to
the proper quarter, and then, deeply affected, passed upon
the prisoner the awful tentence of death in the usual form.
This makes the fifth prisoner sentenced to be hung at
these assizes, another prisoner having anticipated his fate
by hanging himself in his cell before his trial.