Indicted for Stealing a Horse

The Sydney Herald

20 September 1841

Berrima Circuit Court. Thursday, Before Mr, Justice Burton.

Robert Brown was indicted for stealing a Horse, the property of George Galvin, at the Tumut River, on the 30th September.

The prisoner, who was only seventeen years of age, offered a mare for sale to a gentleman named Viner, at the Tumut River, stating that it had been bred by his farther, whose name was Hill, but Mr. Viner suspecting that something was wrong, refused to have anything to do with it, and the prisoner subsequently turned the mare loose.

It was afterwards found out that this mare was the property of Mr. Galvin, who missed it about the time that it was offered for sale by the prisoner.

When taken before the Magistrate, the prisoner acknowledged that he knew the mare was stolen, but denied that he had stolen the mare himself.

A person named Keighran, in whose employ the prisoner was for nearly three years, said that for two years of that time he was a very good boy, but latterly he had mixed with bad company, which caused him to discharge him, but this was the first time he had heard anything against his honesty.

The Jury, without retiring from the box, returned a verdict of guilty.

His Honor said that the prisoner was a very young man, and from what he had heard hoped that he was not old in crime, and therefore he should only pass on him a sentence that would give him another opportunity of becoming a useful member of society.

The sentence of the Court was that the prisoner be confined in Berrima Gaol for six months, each alternative month in solitary confinement.