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The Age (52)

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Mr Bindon asked that the points in the evidence which he had objected to should be reserved, and a case stated for the consideration of the Full Court .

His Honour: What points do you allude to?

Mr Bindon: All the transactions that took place after the death of Lonigan, which were detailed in evidence.

His Honour: I think that the whole was put as a part of the proceedings of the day.

Mr Bindon: There was a period, after the death of Lonigan, when no further evidence was applicable.

His Honour: The way the evidence was put was that Lonigan was not killed by the prisoner in self defence.

Mr Bindon submitted that the only evidence available for the purposes of the prosecution was what had taken place at the killing of Lonigan.

His Honour: The point was a perfectly good one if any authority could be shown in support. But he thought the conduct of the prisoner during the whole afternoon after the killing of Lonigan was important to show what his motive was. He must therefore decline to state a case.

Mr Smyth summed up the evidence for the Crown, and said that as the “motive” of the prisoner had been referred to, he thought that when they found one man shooting down another in cold blood they need not stop to inquire into his motives. It was one of malignant hatred against the police because the prisoner had been leading a wild, lawless life, and was at war with society. He had proved abundantly, by the witnesses produced for the Crown, who were practically not cross examined, that the murder of Lonigan was committed in cold blood. So far as he could gather anything from the cross examination, the line of defence was that the prisoner considered that in the origin of the Fitzpatrick “case,” as it was called, he and his family were injured, and that the prisoner was therefore justified in going about the country with an armed band of revenge himself upon the police. Another point in the defence was that because Sergeant Kennedy and his men did not surrender themselves to the prisoner’s gang this gang was justified in what they called defending themselves and murdering the police. He asked, Would the jury allow this state of affairs to exist? Such a thing was not to be tolerated, and he had almost to apologise to the jury for discussing the matter. The prisoner appeared to glory in his murdering of the police.

Even admitting the prisoner’s defence, that the charge of attempting to murder Constable Fitzpatrick was an untruthful one, it was perfectly idle to say that this would justify the prisoner in subsequently killing Constable Lonigan because he was engaged upon the duly of searching for the Kelly gang. It would not be any defence to say that Lonigan was shot by some other of the gang, because the whole gang was engaged in an illegal act. He though it was not an unfair inference to draw that M’Intyre was kept alive until his superior officer arrived only to be murdered afterwards, and thus not a living soul would have been left to tell the sad tale of how these unfortunate men met their death at the hands of this band of assassins. The prisoner wanted to pose before the country as a hero, but he was nothing less than a petty thief, aw was shown by the fact that the gang raided the pockets of the murdered men. The murders committed were of a most cowardly character, and the prisoner had shown himself a coward throughout his career. The murders that he and his companions committed were of a most bloodthirsty nature. They never appeared in the open exception they were fully armed and had great advantage over their victims.

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