[highway robbery]

R. v. Marra

Court of Criminal Jurisdiction

Wylde J.A., 24 September 1822

Source: Sydney Gazette, 27 September 1822

            James Marra was indicted for stopping and robbing on the Kings highway between Parramatta and Windsor, on the 22nd of May last, John Alexander Viellemont, a foreigner, and dealer in the town of Sydney. Only one evidence was called upon this trial, and that was the prosecutor; who proved that the prisoner stopped him early in the morning of the 22nd of May, with a presented musket; that he was compelled to deliver to him four dollars and a shirt, upon pain of being shot, whereupon the prisoner immediately decamped. Upon being frequently questioned by His Honor the Judge Advocate as to the possibility of positively identifying the prisoner, the prosecutor stated, that the prisoner had been a fellow passenger which in the day before in the Parramatta boat; that they conversed together, occasionally, on the way; and that, upon his arrival at Parramatta, the prisoner actually conducted him to one of the inns in that town, to which he (Villemont) was an utter stranger. His apprehension for this transaction was quite casual; the Sydney Police were conveying him to one of the watch houses early only one morning through Kent-street, and the prosecutor, passing at the time, recognised in the person of the prisoner, his fellow passenger and highwayman – Guilty. Remanded.