TOPIC:

"Cornelius Mahar, a Blackburn labourer, who had served in South Africa with the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment (Militia), was committed to prison on Saturday in respect of a severe assault upon Catherine Cassidy. An interesting point in the hearing of the charge was the announcement that in consequence of his good conduct in the field, Mahar had been selected as one of the fifteen soldiers to represent his regiment at the Coronation ceremonies in London. Splendid service on behalf of king and country on the South African veldt cannot atone for ungentlemanly and un-soldier-like behaviour at home, hence it is to be regretted that some of our brave lads choose to mar capital work in war by conduct of the description mentioned at the Blackburn Borough Police Court on the day named. As a consequence of his actions on the 2nd inst., Mahar will be deprived of the honour his regiment sought to confer upon him, for he will be undergoing the disgrace of two months' imprisonment in Preston gaol. A contrast, indeed!"



Cornelius Mahar (27), labourer, 9 Hanson-street, was placed in the dock upon a charge of unlawfully and maliciously wounding Catherine Cassidy, wife of Francis Cassidy, 37 Bent-street. The offence was, however, reduced to one of common assault.

The prosecutrix, whose eye was very much swollen and bandaged, said she had known the prisoner for a number of years. On the night of the 2nd of June she went into the Royal Oak Inn, King-street, and saw the prisoner, who was seated in one of the rooms by the side of her son's wife and another woman. When they all came out of the public-house, Mahar commenced to follow her (the witness's daughter-in-law) home, and she said he ought to be ashamed to do so as he had brought enough disgrace upon them already. Thereupon the prisoner struck her under the jaw, knocked her down, and threatened to finish her, at the same time kicking her in the ribs. She screamed, and her son, being informed of what had occurred, came to her assistance. Quarter of an hour afterwards there was a knock at her house-door, and upon it being opened she saw Mahar, who threw a fair-sized stone at her, it hitting her in the right eye.

Cross-examined by Mr. Crellin, who represented Mahar, the witness denied throwing a glass of stout in the prisoner's face in the Royal Oak or visiting her daughter's house and sending a burning lamp at him. She found the lamp in the street after Mahar and her daughter had had a quarrel. It was untrue she ran across for her husband and father, and that she returned with a pair of tongs and her husband with a hatchet, and that they assaulted the prisoner with them.

Francis Cassidy spoke to finding his mother on the floor outside the public-house and going to her assistance. She was, he said, badly kicked, and it was some time before he was able to take her home. Cassidy further added that Mahar threw a file and another article into the house in addition to the stone, with the result he broke a picture valued at 10s. 6d. Cross-examined by Mr. Crellin, he denied he was drunk, or that his father and himself first attacked the prisoner.

The husband of the prosecutrix also corroborated.

Mr. Crellin, on behalf of the prisoner, offered an absolute denial to the charge. Mahar, he said, had been to South Africa, where he had borne a very good character, so satisfactory that he had been selected as one of the fifteen to attend the Coronation as representing his regiment. - the Loyal North Lancashire (Militia). The prisoner was seated quietly in the public-house when the prosecutrix threw a glass of stout, to which he had treated her, in his face, she afterwards following him out to strike him. He parried the blow, and then the son arrived and attacked him - the father also assaulting him later on. Cross-examined by Mr. T. C. Robinson, who represented the prosecutrix, he denied he was living with her daughter, but admitted he had stayed at the house of a certain woman.

The Bench considered the case a bad one, and sent Maher to prison for one month.

Weekly Standard and Express [Blackburn], Saturday 11th June 1902

His birth was registered in Blackburn as Cornelius Maher, in the second quarter of 1874. He may have been the Cornelius Maher who died in the first quarter of 1945, in the Middleton registration district, aged 70.