The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-02-13 00:00:00

LONDON. L4W REPORT:

COURT OF KING'S BENCH, MONDAY.
Fracas within the Verge of the Court.
THE KING V. WIGLKY.—This was an indictment against
the defendant for perjury alleged to have been coMmitted by
bins in a deposition respecting some bill transactions, in which
the prosecutor, Mr. O'Gorman Mahou, had been concerned.
When the Attorney-General had nearly concluded his statement
or the circumstances of the case,—
Mr. Justice Coleridge observed that, if the evidence given
by the prosecutor should exactly come up to the sateinent made
by the learned counsel, there would not be sufficient proof -for
hint to leave the case to the jury. Upon this intimation from
the Covet, the counsel for the prosecution submitted to an
acquittal.
Mr. Mahou came into court, and said he had to claim the
protection or his lordshi He had just been assaulted in a
most insolent manner as the was leaving the court. He called
the persons who, he said, had assaulted him (so far as we could
hear) a gang of scoundrels and swindlers.'
A person here stepped forward, and said that all he had done
was to serve Mr. Mahon with a demand for the payment of souse
money; a demand that by law he was obliged to serve ptrson-
ally.

Mr. Platt remarked it was very well for Mr. Mahan to call
names; but the fact was, that the trial of this -cause had been
postponed on condition of the payment of costs of the day, and
that these had not been paid. and it was necessary to servo Mr.
Mahon with the demand.

Mr. Mahon denied that such was the case, and he said that
what he had done was done in avery insolent r.naaner. Ile
repeated what he had before said as to the clients of Mr. Platt.
Mr. Justice Coleridge said that the service of the demand was
a mere formal matter, which did not call for his interference. _

The parties then again withdrew. A special jury was called
over in the next case, but the noise of calling out the names was
interrupted by another tumult in the passage ; and in a few mi-
nutes afterwards Mr. Mahon came into court in custody of a
police officer and of the officers of the court.
Mr. Platt then said that, in vindication of the respect due to
an English court of justice, and of the decency that ought to be
observed by parties there, he must bring a matter that had just
occurred under his lordship's notice. His client, the defendant
in the cause which had just terminated, had been most outrage-
ously assaulted by Mr. Mahon. He thought it only necessary
to direct his lordship's attention to Mr. Wigley's face to inform
him what had been the nature of the assault. (Mr. Wigley
here stood up, and exhibited on the left side of the face the ef-
fects of a most terrible blow. Above and below the upper point
of the cheek-bone the flesh was considerably swelled, while at
the point of the bone itself there was an indentation, in which
the knuckle of a man's finger might have been buried. It
looked as if the bone there had been broken and driven in.)
He thought his lordship could not pass over this outrageous
assault without notice.

Several witnesses were then examined as to the assault; and
,at the close of the investigation Mr. Justice Coleridge addressed
Mr. Mahon in thA following terms:—" O'Gorman l!lahon, I
have examined witnesses upon the charges. now made against
you. The answer,that you gave to that charge was, that an as-
sault had first been made upon you. • It appears to me.that you
have been gitilty of almost gross assault upon Mr. Wigley. It
appears that bail language passed between you, but not 'that he
assaulted you. I look upon the assault you. have committed
_at,
a gross contempt of this court. I should have looked, upon any
assault committed by him in a worse fur .he is an toffitqr
,of this court, and ought to know better what becomes kiln. For
the offence of which you have been guilty, as a contempt of
court, I order you to be imprisoned for the spans of three days
from this time."
Mr. Mahon was then removed in custody, but was brought
back again at the desire of his lordship to be informed, that
all the privileges which he now possessed on account of his at-
tendance on that court should be allowed him upon the expira-
tion of his imprisonment.