THE SIMON MCGEOWN FOR A CHILD RAPIST AND MURDERER

 



38 year old McGeown was hanged at Belfast’s Crumlin Road prison on Thursday the 17th of August 1922 by John Ellis and William Willis.


McGeown had been convicted of the rape and murder of seven year old Margaret (Maggie) Fullerton at Cave Hill in Belfast on Tuesday the 30th of May 1922.  It was crime that shocked Belfast.

Around 6 p.m. Maggie was given 2 pence by her dad to go and buy some sweets with.  She happily left their house at 48 Little York Street to walk to the sweet shop.  By seven o’clock she hadn't returned and her frantic parents reported her missing.  A large scale search found no trace of her.  Two witnesses gave the police useful information.  Annie Aldis (another child) told them that a man had tried to get her to go with him and that later she saw the same man talking to Maggie.

A farmer by the name of Kirkwood saw a man carrying a small girl across fields at Cave Hill in Belfast Castle Plantation around 9 p.m.  Maggie’s naked body lay undiscovered on Cave Hill until June the 3rd when a game keeper’s dog spotted it concealed under leaves and twigs.  

The post mortem revealed that she had been raped and then battered and strangled to death.  The official cause of death was a skull fracture.

McGeown was already in custody on unrelated theft charges and it was noted that his description fitted those given by Annie Aldis and Mr. Kirkwood who picked him out at an identity parade.


McGeown was tried at Belfast before Lord Justice Andrews on the 22nd of July 1922.  His denied the murder and insisted that the witnesses were mistaken in their identification of him.  The jury took 45 minutes to reach a guilty verdict. (What a shame that DNA testing didn’t exist in those days).  Lord Justice Andrews became emotional after passing the death sentence and reportedly fell back in his chair.


McGeown had served as a soldier in India and during the 1st World War.  He had contracted Malaria and also been gassed in the trenches.  Between 1918 and 1922 he had served 30 months in prison for various offences.


The Belfast City Coroner, Dr. James Graham, held the mandatory inquest after the hanging.  The prison’s medical officer Dr. P. 0’ Flaherty reported that death had been instantaneous. The left side of McGeown’s neck was slightly discoloured and his upper cervical vertebrae dislocated.  It was reported after the execution that McGeown had been a methylated spirits drinker, which can seriously affect the brain.  He claimed to have no recollection of the murder but accepted that he must have been responsible for it.  Several hundred people, including Margaret’s parents, had congregated outside the prison to see the notices of execution posted.

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