A Foul Crime.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume IX, Issue 1197, 21 February 1902, Page 4

A Foul Crime.

A whole family has boen sentenced at Cork to long terms of penal servitude for a most brutal attack on a farmer which resulted in his death. They wore indicted for murder, but were convicted of the minor offence of manslaughter. The father, mother, daughter and three sons were all involved in this family crime, and of them, the eldost son, was, we regret to say, a sailor who had served with distinction with the Naval Brigade in South Africa and who bad been invalided home. It is indeed deplorable that a gallant “ handy man ” should turn his hand to such fiendish work. There had been ill-feeling between this ferocious family and their victim for a long time over some trumpery dispute about a boundary fonco. They therefore deliberately sallied forth against their enemy armed to the teeth with “ spades, hay forks, and other implimeuts.” John Crott is not stated to have had any assistance, and if that is so his assailants outnumbered him by six to one. He apparently fought for his life, but was killed in the affray. What circumstances there can have been to reduce the crime to manslaughter we cannot imagine. In any case the crime was one of the most brutal and cowardly ever committed, and tbe fact that two women took part in it is one of its most disgusting features.