[3] Lynch and his father were transported to the colony of New South Wales aboard the Dunvegan Castle, which departed from Dublin on 1 July 1832 and arrived at Sydney on 16 October.

[5] In about January 1836 George Barton, the overseer of ‘Oldbury Farm’, was waylaid on a district road "by ruffians, supposed to be bushrangers", who robbed him, tied him to a fence and whipped him.

Smith had been murdered on 4 March 1836; his body was discovered after several days in the hollow of a fallen tree about a mile from the convict huts at ‘Oldbury Farm’.

The overseer had turned up at several court days in order to prosecute the case but on each occasion the magistrates failed to attend, after which it was decided to release Smith, in consideration of the punishment he had already undergone and the inconvenience of the loss of his services.

[11] In summing up the judge explained to the jury that, with the absence of corroborative evidence, the case rested solely on the credibility of the witness Hoy, which he considered to be “a person tainted with crime, and therefore liable to suspicion”.

Sometime after serving seven years he claimed to have "applied at Hyde Park Barracks for his freedom, and was kept for about a fortnight without getting any satisfactory answer, when he departed without it, and came to the Berrima district, where he had been formerly assigned".

When he got to the Razorback Range, between Stonequarry and Camden, he met with a carrier named Edmund Ireland (a ticket-of-leave holder) and his helper, an Aboriginal boy.

[21] He was met on the Liverpool road by Thomas Cowper, the owner of the dray; to explain the situation Lynch told him his bullock-driver had broken his leg and the boy had gone with him to the hospital at Parramatta.

Hiding the tomahawk inside his coat, Lynch waited for his opportunity and struck the young man a single blow that felled him “like a log of wood”.

After cutting the wood Lynch took his opportunity and gave his axe "a backhanded swing", hitting John Macnamara on the back of his head.

Calling himself Dunleavy, he repeated the story that Mulligan had left the farm at Wombat Brush and obtained a transfer of the lease into his name, but at an increased rental.

Lynch next proceeded to Appin where he engaged Terrence Barnett and his wife Catherine to work as a labourer and house-keeper, and brought them to the farm at Wombat Brush.

[34] By December 1841 the colonial authorities were certain that the carriers, Edmund Ireland and the unnamed Aboriginal boy, as well as William Fraser, junior and senior, had been murdered (even though no bodies had been found).

Landregan had been living at Berrima in the service of an innkeeper and a few days previously had left to go to Stonequarry (Picton) to visit his brother Patrick, an assigned convict.

[21] It was reported that Landregan, described as "a sober man, quiet, and of saving habits", had forty pounds in cash in his possession when he had left Berrima to visit his brother.

[21][35][16] The following morning George Sturges, a labourer for the carrier Hugh Tunney, was driving bullocks back from a creek when he discovered Landregan's body, covered with broken bushes.

He accompanied Sergeant Freer and Chief Constable Chapman to a district farm and identified the man, claiming to be John Dunleavy, as the person seen in company with Landregan.

Dunleavy was taken into custody and questions began to be raised about the Mulligan family, previous occupants of the farm who were supposed to have suddenly left "and never having been heard of since".

[33] A search of the residence revealed stolen property and it was further discovered that the prisoner's real name was John Lynch, “well known in the district as a most notorious character” who had been tried in Sydney in 1836 for a murder at 'Oldbury Farm'.

[34] On 11 March 1842 Lynch underwent an examination at the Berrima Police Office on a charge of being implicated in the murders of Ireland and the “native black boy”, servants of Thomas Cowper.

[27] When the Berrima Circuit Court began its round of sittings on 17 March 1842 the Chief Justice of New South Wales, Sir James Dowling, was asked to consider an affidavit from Lynch requesting “such portion of the prisoner’s property… as might be necessary to defray the cost of his defence, to be given up to him for that purpose”.

Dowling directed that the prisoner be brought to the Court, after which he enquired if the prosecutor, Roger Therry, the acting Attorney-General of New South Wales, had any objection to the application.

Therry pointed out that the property being claimed by the prisoner could not be considered bona fide as it was supposed to belong to the very persons for whom Lynch was under investigation for having murdered.

From the outset the prisoner, addressing the judge, “expressed a hope that His Honor would allow him to have a full and fair trial, as there had been a general prejudice created against him by the numerous crimes laid to his charge”.

A range of witnesses gave evidence in a trial that lasted twelve hours, during which the court was crowded, with many who attended having travelled "upwards of thirty miles".

Justice Dowling “put on the black cap” and addressed the prisoner, beginning with: “John Lynch, the trade in blood which has so long marked your career, is at last terminated, not by any sense of remorse or the sating of any appetite for slaughter on your part, but by the energy of a few zealous spirits, scared into activity by the frightful picture of atrocity which the last tragic passage of your worthless life exhibits”.

During his discourse Dowling concluded that “avarice seems to have been the sole motive”, observing that “neither age nor youth has been spared in gratifying the sordid lust of gain”.

After being sentenced, Lynch, "with considerable emotion", said that the Barnetts, who had been held in custody during the investigation and court processes, were innocent of having anything to do with the charge for which he had been convicted.

[11][40] In mid-April Matthew Ashe of the Sheriff's Office in Sydney travelled to Berrima to supervise the execution of Lynch and Patrick Kleighran (or Clearahan), who had been convicted on a separate murder charge.

[29] The Berrima Police Magistrate, George Bowen, proceeded to the Razorback locality to search for the remains of Ireland and the Aboriginal boy, but initially no trace could be found.