Cornelius was executed at Pentridge Prison, Victoria in June 1936, the third of eleven people to be hanged there after the closure of Melbourne Gaol in 1924.

[2][3] On 24 February 1925 Cornelius, a school-student from Longford, was involved in what was described as a "schoolboy scuffle" or "skylarking" on the Launceston railway station, prior to the departure of the Deloraine train.

[6] Cornelius had been absent from work for a few days due to illness when, in the early afternoon of 5 July 1928, in company with another young man, he went to the York-street garage of his employer.

The Chief Justice, Herbert Nicholls, said that unfortunately he was unable to deal with the prisoner under the First Offenders' Act, as he had a previous conviction of larceny.

The reference to his release in the Tasmanian Police Gazette included the following description: "motor mechanic, age 19 years, height 5 feet 8 inches, fair complexion, fair hair, dark-blue eyes, thick nose, native of Tasmania; scar first joint of right finger, first three fingers of left hand have been crushed at tips".

[11] At about 8 o'clock in the evening of 16 January 1929 Cornelius and another younger man stole a Hupmobile motor-car belonging to Father T. J. O'Donnell, parked outside the Roman Catholic Presbytery at Latrobe, in northern Tasmania.

[12] Later that morning the Deloraine police spoke to two strangers in town (Cornelius and his companion) and questioned them regarding their movements the previous night.

[13] In the Latrobe Police Court on 18 January 1929, Cornelius was sentenced to three months' imprisonment in Hobart Gaol for having unlawfully used a motor car without the consent of the owner.

Later that night they broke into the garage and stole the car, as well as a cash-box containing money and cheques, a clock and a gold-mounted fountain pen.

On July 6, the three men travelled from Launceston to Melbourne aboard the Loongana passenger vessel, but were arrested by Victorian detectives on arrival.

Cash of about £30 each was found in the possession of Miles and Robinson, but Cornelius had thrown his share of the stolen money (about £40) into the Yarra River when he saw the detectives approaching.

[16] On July 8, the three young men were remanded for a week in the Melbourne City Court on charges of vagrancy, pending the arrival of a police escort and warrant from Tasmania.

[19] In March 1932, in the Sydney Quarter Sessions, Cornelius (under the name Thomas Shaw) received a six months' sentence for breaking and entering.

[9] Cornelius was released from Pentridge Prison on 21 October 1935 and found accommodation in a flat at 128 Gipps Street, East Melbourne.

[9] On the morning of Thursday, 12 December 1935, Cornelius called at the vicarage of St. Saviour's Anglican church in Collingwood, after having heard "a rumor that there was a considerable amount of money" there.

The form was handed to Cornelius, who also signed a 'Notice of Marriage' card under an assumed name of Francis Edward Layne (or Loyne).

Cornelius had been carrying tools wrapped in brown paper (a wheel-spanner, a crescent-spanner, a screwdriver and a rule), which he placed on the desk while he began to rifle through the drawers looking for money.

After a squad of detectives arrived at the scene, "news of the tragedy spread quickly in the district and large crowds stood outside the house until a late hour".

The following morning detectives found a blood-stained and rusty iron wheel-spanner in a crevice between a chimney and a toilet outhouse at the vicarage, with a piece of brown paper adhering to one end.

Cornelius' place of abode was determined to be a front upstairs flat at 128 Gipps Street, East Melbourne, and detectives arrived there at early in the morning of 12 February 1936.

[27] During the interrogation Cornelius was taken to the shop of a secondhand dealer in Prahran, from where detectives had previously ascertained the spanner used to murder Rev.

After intensive questioning Cornelius finally admitted to killing Cecil, but claimed the vicar had attacked him and he had acted in self-defence.

On the first day of the inquest John Long, Cornelius' legal representative, strongly objected to his client's alleged confession being introduced as evidence and to its subsequent publication.

Knowing it was inevitable Cornelius would be committed for trial, Long was concerned the admission of the statement would prejudice his client's case.

His counsel began by challenging the admissibility of the statement made on February 12, claiming the accused had signed the document under duress and detectives had obtained a sample of his handwriting by trickery.

He concluded that "if the jury... thought that accused, in striking the blows, intended to do grievous bodily harm, then undoubtedly he was guilty of murder".

[34][35] On 9 June 1936 the Full Bench of the High Court unanimously dismissed an application by John Long, counsel for Cornelius, for special leave to appeal against his conviction.