From The Queenslander
Brisbane, Queensland
25 March 1893

Roma Circuit Court
_________

[BY TELEGRAPH FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT]

ROMA, March 21.
   The circuit court was opened to-day before Mr. Justice Harding. Mr. Power, instructed by Mr. Cooling, of the Crown Law Office, prosecuted for the Crown. Joseph Gilliland, charged with the murder of Henry Lublow on the 26th December last at Charleville, pleaded not guilty. The prisoner was defended by Mr. [Wilton] Wood. The Crown had a strongly corroborated case, and the prisoner gave evidence on his own behalf under the recently passed Criminal Law Amendment Act. He pleaded in defence that on the night of the 25th December he found his wife and Lublow in the act of adultery. In summing up the Judge commented on the fact of a man having gone away and nursed and slept on his wrongs, which he said did away with extenuating circumstances. The jury found the prisoner guilty of manslaughter, and he was sentenced to fifteen years’ imprisonment, the Judge saying that the jury would have been justified in returning a verdict of murder, and had it been so, the prisoner would have paid the penalty of his crime with his life. The evidence showed that the parties immediately concerned were addicted to the abuse of drink, and Lublow, who was over 60 years of age, died from kicks on the head given by the prisoner. The trial was concluded at 6 p.m., when the Criminal Court adjourned. The civil business will be taken to-morrow.

-- transcirption by Kate Maynard, 2010