MURDER IN IRELAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19405, 13 August 1926, Page 14

MURDER IN IRELAND.

ASSASSINATION FOR £3O. ! SEQUEL TO CATTLE RAID. MAN . SENTENCED TO DEATH. ":;'v . V- ; -vV./.'-' ' "■■■'■ V' V.' .;. . -foi Found guilty at the Central Criminal Court, Dublin, a few weeks ago, of tho murder of John Smith; sen., at Townparks, Ardee, County Louth, on February 27, 1924, James Myles was sentenced to death. Mr. Carrigan, K.C., for the State, said the accused qnd a man named McKeevor wer© originally charged with tho murder of an old man, John Smith, and of his son, also named John Smith, while the police in Louth were endeavouring to bring to justice men connected with the outrages. Myles elected to give an account of a series of outrages in which, he said, he and McKeevor and a man named Boyle took part. . There had happened in Louth, what happened in various parts of the country. Greedy wretches took advantage of the country's troubles for base and mercenary ends to hire creatures to steal and dispose of cattle. A lot of cattle wete taken from a farm belonging to Mrs. Singleton; and a notico appeared offering a reward of £lO for the discovery of the robbers. The Smiths lived in close proximity to the farm and on the morning the reward notico-appeared young Smith was seen to go to the police barracks. " Politics and Madness," " Boyle, said counsel, would tell the jury that Myles and McKeevor proposed to him that he should join them in tho murder, of the,two Smiths, at the instance of the men who were in jeopardy for the cattle stealing, and who wero prepared to pay for the removal of tho Smiths. A sum of £2O was mentioned. Two days afterwards tho deed was done. He was sure the first impulse of the jury would be to disbelieve that a double assassination could take place for £2O or £30,. but to the horror of everybody, whose minds were not saturated with what were called politics and madness, these two men were murdered. Boyle refused to have anything to do with the murders. Francis Boyle gave evidence that Myles, Luke McKeover and ho, were brought together by politics toward the end of 1921. McKeover told him in February, 1924, that they were going in a "stunt" to shoot a man called Smith, that there was good pay for 'doing it. Last March in Dundalkf Prison, Myles said to the witness: "You know all about the shooting of the Smiths. You know it was me and McKeever who did it, but if you tell, myself and McKcever will be hung. If you keep your mouth shut during tho time you are in gaol, McCardlo and Moore will spare 110 money on you. When you come out they will pay your passage to America." Myles also said he mado £3O oyer tho murder. 1 Tho. prisoner, in the witness box, declared he knew absolutely nothing of the murders. ,Ho said that while under arrest he mado a lying statement to tho policy against McKeover,* as he thought McKeever would mako a lying statement against hirn> Judge Censures the Police. When Mr. Carrigan produced a statement, in which the accused gave an account of his movements on the- night of the murder, :tlie Judge remarked that this statement had obviously been kept back' and had this man not gone into the witness box the statement would not have been brought before the jury. Ho could not but censure that conduct on the part of the police. It was monstrous that tho polico should decide what statements they were to keep back and what they were to produce. ' Tho accused was taken through his alleged confession by Mr. Carrigan, who said: "You described how you present at tho shooting and that McKeevor fired both shots. That is very clover of you to mako yourself loss guilty than McKeevor." 1 The Witness: There is no truth in it whatever. An application for leave to appeal against the death sentenco was refused.