Thomas McGuire and Thomas Phillips were indicted for a robbery in the house of Thomas Daniels, at Clear Creek, in the neighbourhood of Bathurst, in March last, and stealing therefrom two £1 notes, some silver coin, a gun barrel, and several articles of wearing apparel, and putting in bodily fear Mary Daniels, wife of the said Thomas Daniels.  This robbery was attended with most aggravated circumstances.  The prisoners went to prosecutor's house in the morning, a little after sunrise, and finding no one there but Mrs. Daniels, and a little girl five years of age, they proceeded to ransack the premises, and Mrs. Daniels shewing some opposition to their proceedings, one of them took the musket and struck her several times so severely with it, as to separate the barrel from the stock, the effects of which blows she felt at the present moment, and believed she would never get the better of.  Mrs. Daniels gave her evidence in a plain and distinct manner, swearing most positively that McGuire was the man who struck her.  Other witnesses were examined, who deposed to the prisoners being in the neighbourhood of Mrs. Daniels' house on the morning the robbery was committed.

The prisoners called a witness or two to prove an alibi, but in which they did not succeed.

His Honor summed up the whole of the evidence; the Jury retired for about a quarter of an hour, and returned a verdict of guilty against McGuire, and acquitted Phillips.

His Honor addressing Phillips, said he had had a most fortunate escape - the Jury had evidently some doubts as to his guilt, and from a tender point of conscience, had given him the benefit of these; but from the evidence, he (the learned Judge) thought they would have been perfectly warranted in finding him guilty, yet he was bound to receive their verdict, and trusted that his present escape from forfeiting his life on the public scaffold would have a salutary effect on his future conduct.