The Daily Telegraph, Thu 13 Nov 1879 1
CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12.
(Before His Honor Sir William Manning.)
UNNATURAL OFFENCE.— William Daley pleaded not guilty to a charge of this nature. The case for the Crown was a very slight one, and the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. Prisoner was defended by Mr Pitcairn.
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The Sydney Morning Herald, Thu 13 Nov 1879 2
CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.—WEDNESDAY.
(Before His Honor Sir William Manning.)
The Attorney-General prosecuted for the Crown.
UNNATURAL OFFENCE.
William Daley pleaded not guilty to a charge of committing an unnatural offence, [bestiality with a horse ].
Mr Pitcairn, instructed by Mr H McCulloch, jun., appeared for the defence.
The case for the Crown, which rested upon the evidence of a constable, was as follows:– On the 3rd of last October, constable Goddard was passing along a road between Smithfield and Parramatta, when he noticed the man Daley in a position indicative of the commission of the offence. He took him into custody. The man said, “For God’s sake let me go, and you’ll never see me again.” The counsel for the defence called witnesses, who deposed to the general respectability of the prisoner’s character, and who stated that upon the morning in question he was extremely drunk. In addressing the jury, the counsel argued that more evidence was necessary before a conviction could be arrived at; the evidence for the Crown was that a single unsupported witness, and he pointed out one or two minor discrepancies in the statements of that witness.
The Attorney-General thought the witness for the Crown had given his evidence very fairly, and that the aspersions of the learned counsel were unwarranted.
His Honor, in summing up, stated that, although the evidence was unsupported, it pointed significantly to the commission of the offence by the prisoner.
After about a quarter of an hour’s deliberation, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty, the foreman adding that his follow-jurors did not concur in any way to throw discredit upon the constable’s evidence, although they were of opinion that he had been mistaken.
1 The Daily Telegraph, Thu 13 Nov 1879, p. 4.
2 The Sydney Morning Herald, Thu 13 Nov 1879, p. 8.