THE WATERLOO OUTRAGE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XIII, Issue 4737, 10 December 1886, Page 4

THE WATERLOO OUTRAGE.

THE JUDGE'S REMARKS

Is sentencing to death the nine prisoners found guilty of what ia generally known as the Waterloo outrage, Mr Justice Windeyer (of New South Wales) said :—Prisoners, — You have been convicted of a most atrocious crime, a crime so horrible that every lover of his country must feel that it is a disgrace to our civilisation, j I am glad to find that this case has been tried by a jury that has had the intelligence to see through the perjury upon perjury that has been committed on your behalf, and the courage to declare the truth as they Bee it. It is terrible to think that we should have amongst us in this city a class worse than savages, lower in their instincts than the brutes below us. No language could express the abhorrence of right-thinking men of a scene such as that described by witness after witness in this case, as the poor defenceles girl, friendless and alone ia like some wild animal hunted down by a set of savages, who spring upon her until she lies a lifeless thing before them ; and then, when returning consciousness brings with it the terror of further outrage, she, in frenzy, seeks in such opportunity of death as aeems to present itself a rofuge from the horrors of her life. I warn you to prepare for death. No hope of mercy can I extend to you. Be sure no weakness of the Executive, no maudlin felling of pity, will save you from the death you so richly deserve. Those who are charged with the administration of our affairs, to whose keeping is confided the safety of the public, will remember there are things more precious to society than life itself — the honor of our women and the safety of our families, compared with which the wretched lives of criminals such as you are of no account. It is true that you are young, but the remembrance of that fact is coupled with the recollection of the fact that not twice or thrice only has public feeling been horrified by the perpetration of similar crimes by young men like yourselves. The present outrage is, I believe, the outcome of the past, and I solemnly express my belief that this culminating atrocity has been brought about by the immunity from the death penalty which your class has so long enjoyed upon the ground of your youth. Outrages such as this are not committed upon the children of the rich, the surroundings of whose life give their children protection, but upon the daughters of the people, who, in the pursuit of their honest avocations, are compelled to go about alone, exposed to the attacks of such gangs of ruffians who choose to assault them. Under all these circumstances, be sure no pity will be extended to you ; our pity must be reserved for the homes that are desolated, and the victims who are wrecked for life by outrages such as these. I warn you not to waste your time in idle protestations of your innocence. I advise you to prepare to meet your Maker ; and, if you are capable of understanding the poaition in which you stand, remember that your time is short. From a document in the possession of the Government the following particulars have been obtained with reference to the nine prisoners now in Darlinghurst gaol under sentence of death for the Waterloo outrage : — All but one of the condemned are natives of New South Wales, and the one who is not is a native of Victoria. Five of the nine are Roman Catholics, three are Presbyterians, and the religion of one is that of the Church of England. Only one of the nine is over 20 years of age. Four of them are 19, one 18, and three 17.