The Sun. — 1858-12-15 (London, England)

MURDER AT WINDLE, NEAR ST. HELEN'S. Hugh M'Cabe, aged 22, and Michael Murphy, .z ged 21, were indicted for the wilful murder of Robert Vose, at Windle, on the sth instant. The charge against M'Cabe was only upon a coroner's inquisition. The prosecution was conducted by Mr. Simon and Mr. Temple ; and the defence by Mr. Wheeler and Mr. J. B. Aspinall. Mr. Simon, who opened the case, said that at the outset he thought it only right to state that it was quite possible that the evidence would be of such a character as to release the jury from the responsibility of considering the charge as a capital crime. They would, however, have to discriminate between the prisoners as to their individual responsibility, and guilt. It might be that both prisoners were involved, but it was still possible that only one of them was. The prisoners were both labouring men, residing at St. Helen's, and on the night of Oct. 5, the deceased, his cousin, and some other men were in a public-house called the Peel Arms, when the prisoners, who had previously been drinking at the Star beer-house came in. A quarrel ensued respecting a quart of ale, and an angry altercation took place. At 12 o'clock the landlord ordered them out of the house. Deceased, and his cousin Richd. Vose, left the house first, and the others came out afterwards. M'Cabe and deceased began to fight, and others taking part in it the melee became general. According to the evidence of one witness, deceased struck the first blow, but another witness said that M' Cabe first struck Vose. During the fight Murphy ran across the street to the place where they were -fighting to assist M'Cabe, and was knocked down by Richard Vose. According to the latter witness's evidence deceased ran down. Water-street for the purpose ofgoinghome, and was followed bp M'Cabe, but according to another witness, after deceased and M'Cabe had been struggling on the ground the police arrived, and they both got up and ran away. About ten minutes afterwards a man was found lying on some waste ground near the road. The man who discovered him thought he was drunk, and there being a rattling in his throat he only thought he was going to vomit. He turned the man over, but did not observe any blood upon him. It was very dark at the time. The body was found about half-past 5 lying in the same place quite stiff and cold, and on examining it two wounds were discovered—one on the left arm, and another on the left breast, penetrating into the chest. This wound was-the cause of death. Mr. Simon then detailed the circumstances of the arrest of the prisoners, particularly dwelling upon the fact that when M'Cabe was arrested, although not charged with any,offence, the first words he uttered were, " Is the man dead ?" The learned counsel contended that this question was only consistent with the prisoner's knowledge that he had inflicted a dangerous wound upon the deceased. The examination was conducted by Mr. Temple. A number of witnesses having been called on the above facts, Mr. Aspinall addressed the jury on behalf of M'Cabe, dwelling upon what he considered the insufficiency and discrepancies of the evidence. In the melee it was quite possible that the stab might have been inflicted by some other person, and with regard to M'Cabe's remark, " Is the man dead ?" it was accounted for by the fact that when the crowd followed the prisoner he had overheard their conversation and remarks. His lordship having summed up, The jury retired, and in about half an hour returned a verdict of acquittal in the case of Murphy, and a verdict of manslaughter in the case of M'Cabe. Sentence deferred.