SIXTY YEARS AGO FROM THE Otago Daily Times. "Inveniam viam aut faciam.” FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1862.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18687, 17 October 1922, Page 6

SIXTY YEARS AGO FROM THE Otago Daily Times. "Inveniam viam aut faciam.” FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1862.

John Fratson was yesterday found guilty of the murder of Andrew Wilson at the Molynoux oir the 30th of May, the trial having occupied tho Supremo Court from ton o’clock until half-past nine in the evening. Fratson had evidently throughout believed that a verdict of not guilty would bo returned. When placed in the dock it .was clear that the dreadful charge hanging over him had not, during the interval since his committal, weighed heavily on his mind. He was thinner, but seemed in excellent health. His countenance was not free from traces of anxiety, but throughout the day, while assuredly not exhibiting the shadow of bravado, he listened to the evidence with less interest than did scores of tho uninterested auditors who thronged the court. Ho remained seated, with the exception of a few short intervals; when he leaned his head upon nis loft, hand, tho atm resting upon tho clock. Two or three times ho reached forward, as if desirous to catch an answer of tho witness under examination ; but up to the time when the jury quitted the Court, at ton minutes after eight, he never betrayed anything like fear or deep anxiety. When tho absence of the jury had extended over more than half an hour, ho apparently gained fresh hope; but ho must have been chilled to the sou! by the tones in which tho jurymen answered to their names when they returned, shortly before half-past, nine o’clock. The names being* called, and the usual question put, the foreman somewhat faintly uttered the terrible word, ‘‘Guilty.’’ A painful thrill ran through the assemblage, and Fratson, as if shot, dropped his head upon the side of the dock, hurst into tears, and continued weeping convulsively. Mr Justice Gresson merely directed, “Let the prisoner he removed,” and then left, the bench. In a minute or two Fratson became somewhat calmer, but, as he was led from the dock, he sobbed, “That Tuckwell has sworn away mv life after all.” Mr Wilson, who defended the prisoner, had attacked Detective Tuckwell on the ground of his being over-anxious for a committal, but the Judge told the jury that such observations were usually made in criminal cases, and there was no evidence here that Tuckwell had done anything beyond a proper performance of a duty which was of tho utmost importance to the well-being of society. As will bo seen from onr report elsewhere, His Honor directed tho fury absolutely to dismiss from their minds any impression that might, have been made by a wholly unsupported question put to tho officer by Mr Wilson. Would it, not have been more merciful to tho prisoner to have passed sentence at once? We have no doubt that in such cases in England it is the invariable _ practice to follow a verdict of guilty by immediate sentence, whatever be the hour of the night at which the jury return to Court. Mrs Fratson was in Court with a child in her arms during the whole of the trial and was also there when tho verdict was delivered and her husband removed.