The Central Glamorgan Gazette, and General, Commercial, and Agricultural Advertiser. — 1867-04-19 (Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan, Wales)

EXTRAORDINARY MURDER ON  THE HIGH SEAS.  Charles Andersen, 30, a Swede, was tried before Mr. Baron Channell at the Central Criminal Court, on Friday, for the wilful murder of James Machin upon the high seas, and within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty of England. Mr. Collins prosecuted on behalf of the Treasury. The prisoner was defended by Mr. Daly and Mr. Streight. The circumstances of this ease were of a very extranolinary character. The prisoner shipped on board a British vessel called the Raby Castle, at Penang, on the 28th of September, on a voyage to England, as able seaman and carpenter, and it appeared that during the voyage ho was considered a person of weak intellect, but perfectly harmless. The deceased was a mulatto, hut the prisoner appeared to he under the delusion that he was a Rassian Fill, and it seems that there is some extraordinary superstition among sailors that the presence of a Russian Fin on board a vessel is likely to lead to the destruction of that vessel, and the prisoner was frequently heard to mutter sonic incoherent observations to himself to the effect that he could not go on in this way, and that he must kill the Russian Fin, or die they should never get to Loudon. During the night of the 24th November the prisoner had a watch on deck, and he appeared to have gone to the bunk where the unfortunate deceased man was lying, and attacked him with a carpenter's axe, and inflicted live despeatte wounds upon his neck and shoulder, the effect of the former injuries being to nearly sever the bead from the body. The prisoner was immediately suspected so the murderer, and he was seen to be wiping Mood from Lis hands and to throw an axe overboard. He was asked bow he had come to murder his comrade, and the reply he made was that if he bail not done no, the ship would have gone on the rocks, and they would all havv been lost. There had been a Leavy gale of wind blowing about the time, and there appixt,red to be 410 doubt that he committed the act under the impression that if he did not kill the deceased, whom he supposed to be a Russian Fin, Lis own safety and the safety of the crew would be endangered. It also appeared that, in point of fact, there was no Russian FM on board the vessel, and there did not seem to have been any quarrel or ill-feeling between the prisoner and the deceased man. The jury retired to deliberate, and were absent more than an Lour. They then came into court, and found the prisoner guilty. . . . _  On the prisoner being afterwards brought op forjudgment, the learned judge, addressing him, Raid that the jury, after a very careful inquiry, had found themselves compelled to convict him uf the crime of wilful murder ; and as to the act itself, there was no doubt that he bad committed it, and the only defence that was set up for him was that at the time lie was labouring under a delusion, which had impelled him to commit the crime, and that lie was, therefore, not responsible. It was not contended that be did not on ordinary occasions fully appreciate the difference between right and ;riving, but it was said that be was labouring under a delusion, and that the effect of this delusion was th induce him to commit the t. The jury had carefully considered the matter, and they had arrived at the concluaion that they Were not justified, under the circumstances, of acquitting him on the ground of insanity, and it therefore became his duty to pass upon him the sentence of the law for the crime of murder. His lordship then paused sentence of death in the usnal form.  The prisoner bowed to the learned judge, awl was then removed.  This concluded the business of the session, and the court adjourned to Monday, May 6.