The Sun. — 1855-12-14 (London, England)

AGGRAVATED CASS OF MANSLAUGHTER. John O'Neil, 25, labourer, was indicted upon a coroner's warrant for the wilful murder of Thomas Cahill, at Liverpool, on the 6th October. The deceased and the prisoner were neighbours, and resided in a court in Scotland-road. Their children bad been playing, and the prisoner's little girl having been pushed down and somewhat injured by a boy of the deceased's, the prisoner a few day's afterwards came into Cahill's house, brandishing a knife, and swearing that he " would have blood for blood." No direct violence, however, appears to have occurred that night, but on the night of the 6th October, O'Neill again entered the house in a state of intoxication, but net finding Cahill then at home, he returned about midnight, when the deceased was in bed, and kicked violently at the door, at the same time challenging the deceased to come out and fight. Cahill got up, looked out of the window, and though his wife did all she could to persuade him to remain in the house, he went down stairs, and haring laid a poker upon the kitchen table, opened the door, and advised O'Neill to go home. "Don't (said he) let us quarrel about the children—go home, and I will talk to you to-morrow," On this the prisoner struck the deceased twice, and the latter then went into the house. The prisoner followed him and struck him again, when the deceased cried out " I'm stabbed." He fell, and on his friends coming to him they found that he had received a wound in the left breast. When the prisoner was taken into custody, a pocket-knife, with blood on the blade, was picked up close to the door. In consequence of the dangerous state of Cahill, his deposition was taken on the Monday follow. ing, before Mr. Bolton, and in the presence of the prisoner. Cahill, in this deposition, stated that he was stabbed by the prisoner, though " he never struck him from first to last." Cahill died the same day (Monday), and the prisoner was subsequently committed for trial by the borough coroner. The deceased's relatives and a host of witnesses were called to prove the above facts. Mr. Macdonald, who made his maiden speech in defence of the prisoner, argued that when O'Neill committed the crime with which he was charged he was not in his proper senses, and he could not be charged with the crime of wiliol murder. The jury found the prisonerguilty of the minor offence of manslaughter. His lordship then passed sentence in the following terms :—John O'Neill, the jury have taken a favourable view of your case, in deciding that you are guilty of manslaughter. Notwithstanding the circumstances under which this homicide was committed, they have not been satisfied, beyond all reasonable doubt, that, however desperate, however reckless, your conduct may have been, that you were actuated by that deliberate malice which is essential to the crime of murder. But your crime is only just barely below that of murder. The facts of the case—the instrumentwhich you used, in the absence of all resistance on the part of the deceased—are deep aggravations of your guilt, and make this one of the worst cases of Manslaughter that I ever recollect to have occurred in the course of my experience. You appear, by the evidence, to be of a temperament which, when exasperated by drink, is quite ungovernable. It is another ca=e, arising out of the already too fearful catalogue from that deplorable vice, intemperance. The sentence upon you is, that you be transported for the term of your natural life.—The prisoner received the sentence apparently unconcerned, but his wife and other relatives in court uttered the most distressing cries until removed by the officers of the court.