THE LYTTELTON MURDER.

Marlborough Express, Volume X, Issue 701, 14 April 1875, Page 4

THE LYTTELTON MURDER.

Chkistchtjrch, April 10. The trial of Mercer, on. a charge of murder, was completed to-day. There was no witnesses called for the defence. The following is a digest of the case : — On the day the murder was committed, the murdered girl, who resided m Dampier Bay with hexparents, came into Lyttelton to get a ticket at the Colonists' Hall for the school picnic. Shortly after five o'clock m the evening, the prisoner was seen with the girl by two persons standing at the Albion Hotel. He then spoke to a person standing there, leaving the girl to go by herself. He was afterwards seen to overtake the girl, and proceed with her towards Oxford Street. The prisoner was next seen coming from the> gorse hedge where the girl's body was afterwards found. He had marks of blood on him, and he was seen brushing his clothes, apparently to get rid of some dust. The next trace that was found of him was just before the starting of the train for Christchurch, when he was noticed to have blood on him. It was also noticed m the train, where those m the carriage m which he rode remarked about his getting m it m that state. He then said he had been killing a sheep. This was about 6 o'clock m the evening ; and after the train had gone, the body of the murdered girl was found by two boys m a hole m the gorse fence, m the locality of which the prisoner and the girl were seen going. The blood on the prisoner's clothes was microscopically examined, and ascertained to be the blood of some animal which sucked its young, but it could not be sworn to as human blood. After prisoner's arrest a number of spots were found on his legs, and, on being questioned, he said they were only pimples, and that no gorse prickles would be found on him ; but on a medical examination being made, gorse prickles were found m the places where the skin was marked, and which marks the prisoner had declared to be merely pimples. The prisoner when arrested, denied having had a knife on the day of the murder, but two witnesses swore to having seen a pocket knife m his possession, and they identified a knife found m a coal tub on board the vessel where the piisoner was arrested as the knife, they saw him with. At the conclusion of the evidence to-day the Crown Prosecutor made an able address to the jury. Mr Joynt, the prisoner's council, argued, m addressing the jury, that the girl seen m the prisoner's company just before the murder was committed, was not satisfactorily identified as the deceased girl ; that the identification of

the prisoner as the man that was seen com- 1 ing from the scene of the murder soon after it must have been committed, was not sum- I ciently clear to justify the jury m taking away the prisoner's life ; that the knife was not perfectly identified ; that there was discrepancy m the evidence as to the prisoner's clothes ; and that the prisoner was not proved to have been thoroughly recognised as the man who came from the paddock where the girl's body was afterwards found. His Honor having summed up, the jury retired for twelve minutes, and then returned into court with a verdict of guilty. His Honor assumed the black cap, and passed sentence of death. The prisoner was unmoved.