Sixteen-year-old Mary Jane Hicks had been educated at the Bathurst convent school, then worked as a domestic servant at Katoomba, and at a hotel and private houses in Sydney.
The girl's screaming was heard by a passerby, William Stanley, who attempted to rescue her but was driven off by the gang with bricks, stones, and bottles.
[2] At least one reporter formed the view that Sweetman had deliberately planned to deliver a girl to the Push members, who were assembled and waiting for the purpose.
[5] The victim, Mary Jane Hicks, testified that she had fallen into and out of consciousness during the ordeal, but gave evidence that at least eight men held her down and took turns raping her, and that many others were present, including some who had not been apprehended.
[7] He notes that the Bulletin accused the then-Governor of New South Wales, Lord Carrington, of "dragging from the grave the skeletons of the poor wretched ignorant boys whom he sent to the gallows in deference to the laws of a convict colony that has not even yet emerged from beneath the shadow of the gaol wall".
[7] However, in an editorial leader, The Sydney Morning Herald maintained that the youths had received a fair trial, and that capital punishment for rape had been confirmed by legislation only three years earlier.
Before the end of the year, the state's Executive Council reviewed all the sentences and commuted three to life imprisonment on the grounds of "mitigating circumstances".
[8][11] A public meeting was convened at the Sydney Town Hall on 29 December, with the purpose of petitioning the governor to exercise his power to reprieve all the condemned youths.
Historian Brett Hinch traced the life of Mary Jane Hicks after the trial and documented that she moved to New Zealand, where she died six years later, aged 22.