The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1876-07-29 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

SENTENCED TO DEATH.  The Dublin correspondent of The Times writes :  One of the snort important trials at the present Assizes is that of Stephen Pil'lCeown for the murder of Mary M'Shane, a young girl of 17 years of age, at Forkhill in the county Armagh, terminated on Wednesday in a verdict of guilty. The indictment was supported altogether by circumstantial evidence, a fact which makes the conviction remarkable considering the general disinclination of jurors to convict upon such proof. The murder excited feelings of indignation and horror in the county, especially as the father of the girl was murdered about a year before. It was committed on Sunday, the 23rd of April, about four o'clock in the afternoon, the time having been fixed by the fact that the bell of Forkhill Church was rung for evening service at that hour, and was heard by some of the witnesses. The prisoner had been prosecuted for the murder of Mary M'Shane's father, but there was not sufficient evidence against him and he was acquitted. He entertained a very bitter feeling against her on account of the part she took in the proceedings against him, and she had applied to have him bound over to keep the peace in consequence of his threats. It was sworn by different witnesses that during the fortnight before the murder be called her a "bloodhound," and declared that be would "stop her talking." Shortly before the murder she went with a basket to get some groceries at a shop in Forkhill, and on returning through a. field was attacked by the prisoner and her head battered in with a stone. A number of witnesses were produced for the Crown, who saw her at different points of the wood between her own home, which was near the prisoner's, and the publican's where she bought some whi-ley, and also saw the prisoner near the spot where the body was found shonly after the crime was committed. One of the witnesses saw a struggle between a girl and a man, and heard a cry, but made no effort to interfere, and did not seispect its real character. It was sworn that the prisoner stopped for twenty minutes in a tavern at which he called on his way, and that he was met coming very fast in a stooping position with a stone in his hand, which he threw away when observed. About five o'clock in the evening hie was arrested in his own house while in the act of looking over an album, from which cartes were afterwards taken and published in the local papers. He was duly cautioned when taken into custody, and then declared that hel had not left the house at all since he was at mass in. the morning. The defence was mainly an alibi, and the members of his family all swore that be came home at eight minutes before four o'clock on that day, and did not go out again. Some discrepancies in the evidence for the Crown were also relied on. Mr. Justice Fitzgerald, in the charge to the jury, commented on the fact that all swore to the one exact point of time, but could not recollect other circumstances and thought the fact material, as owing to the promptitude with which he was arrested there was no opportunity for fabricating a story. After an hour's deliberation, the jury found a verdict of "Guilty." The prisoner made a leng, rambling statement, in which he impeached the credit of the witnesses, and protested his innocence. Fie was sentenced to be executed on the 21st of August.