The Sun.
London, England, 1867-05-14 00:00:00

Chaige of Murder by a Soldier.

On Saturday morning Peter Byrne, a private
soldier in the 3d battalion of the 60th Rifles, who
has been 11 years in the regiment, and who bears
two good-conduct stripes on his arm, was brought
up at the Guildhall, Winchester, before the
Mayor and a full bench of magistrates, charged
with the wilful murder of William Brown, of the
same battalion (who had only joined on the first day
of the present month) on Thursday night, in the
barracks at Winchester. The prisoner is a fine-
looking man, and has an open, intelligent counte-
nance. The first witness called was in. Colley, who
deposed that he is a private soldier in Winchester
barracks, and at about five minutes to 10 on Thurs-
day night was in bed in No. 111 room. There were
four other sciliers there besides the deceased. The
deceased was sitting► on witness's bed-cot, when the
prisoner came into the room and asked the d:yense.l
if he could fight, to which he replied " No." The
prisoner then locked the room door, and after taking
off his belt and jacket went back to the cot to the
deceased, and asked if he could fight, when deceased
again replied " No,"and added, " You had better be
quiet, or I will tell the colour-sergeant." The pri-
soner then struck the deceased with his fist under or
on the left ear, and knocked him down upon wit-
ness. The blow was a violent one. The prisoner
then turned off the gas. Witness lifted up the
deceased, who said "I am dying." Sergeant Mar-
shall then came to the door, and it was opened to
him, and the prisoner was reported. The deceased
was taken to the guard-room, and thence to the
military hospital. Witness saw the deceased at
eleven o'clock the same night, when he was
dead. He had not heard of any quarrel between
the deceased and the prisoner. The prisoner did
not appear to be drunk. Privates T. Cause
and Henry Jones corroborated this witness.
Sergeant Marshall deposed that at about five
minutes past 10 o'clock on Thursday night he
knocked at the door of No. 111 thou], and was
admitted, when his attention was called to the de-
ceased by the witness Jones. He was lying on the
floor between two cots. Witness took him to be
drunk, and ordered him to be taken to the guard-
room, where he was put in a cell. Soon afterwards,
in the guard-room, witness was told that the de-
ceased had been struck, and one of the guard said he
was dead. Witness then felt him by the side of the
neck, where it had been said he had been struck.
The sergeant of the guard ordered deceased to be
taken to the hospital, and witness went with him. This
was about 20 minutes past 10. The prisoner was after-
wards ordered to be confined in a cell. He was then
drunk--not fit for duty, yet capable of taking care of
himself. Dr. Patterson, staff-surgeon of the depot
battalion, deposed that he had made a post-mortem
examination of the body, and that in his opinion
the cause of death was extravasation of blood at the
base of the brain and upper portion of the spine,
and he did not believe that this could have resulted
from natural causes. The Bench 'committed the
prisoner to take his trial at the next 'Winchester
Assizes for manslaughter. He also stands commit-
ted upon the coroner's inquisition on a similar
charge.