and sensation in Sydney. The Sydney press focused on the brutal nature of the perpetrators. The Sydney Daily Telegraph newspaper described the crime as one "which no parallel can be found in the crimes of civilized life or in the savageries of barbarism". The Sydney Bulletin instead argued that Hicks was an "unfortunate", or in other words, a prostitute. It focused on her lack of virginity. Crucially though, it ignored Hicks's claim that she had been raped at the age of fourteen by a married man. Geoffrey Partington notes that the Bulletin likened the incident to British oppression of the Irish. 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". However, in an editorial leader, The Sydney Morning Herald maintained that the youths had received a fair trial, and that the death penalty for rape had been confirmed by legislation only three years earlier. Therefore, the sentences should be carried out unless there were legitimate grounds for reprieve in any individual case. Trials The trial of the accused youths was conducted over six consecutive days, 22–27 November inclusive. Detailed reports were printed in the Herald and are available online. William Hill, George Duffy, William Newman, Michael Donnellan, Joseph Martin, William Boyce, Hugh Miller, George Keegan, Robert Read, Thomas Oscroft, and Michael Mangan were tried for the crime. Justice Windeyer declared the crime as a "most atrocious crime, a crime so horrible that every lover of his country must feel that it is a disgrace to our civilization". The first nine men were convicted and sentenced to death; the last two were acquitted. All but one were reportedly under 20 years of age. After a separate trial, Charles Sweetman received a fourteen-year prison sentence for his part, plus 50 lashes, to be handed out on two occasions. Appeals for clemency A public campaign was waged, advocating that the death penalty was too harsh for the nine condemned youths. 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". A public meeting was convened at the Sydney Town Hall