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Martin Mellett (born 1809) was 19 years old when indicted, along with James Farthing for sexual offences-sodomy. Mellett was one of 190 convicts transported on the Layton, 17 June 1829. He arrived in New South Wales on 8 November, 1829.
Martin Mellett or Mallett and James Farthing, two Irishmen, were capitally indicted for having committed an unnatural crime on the evening of the 6th of August 1828. Alice Triggs, who lodged at the time in question at No. 19, Stephen-street, Lisson Grove, deposed, that the prisoners lodged in the same house, and on the evening of the 6th of August she had occasion to go down into the washhouse, and on opening the door, which was not fastened in any way whatever, found the prisoners in a situation which left no doubt on her mind that the crime had been perpetrated. She underwent a very severe cross-examination, the object of which was to shew that she had been on bad terms with the prisoners, and that her object had been to obtain money by making this charged. She persevered, however, in her statement of having seen the offence committed. Edward Burridge, an officer, proved that he had apprehended Mallett; and that Farthing, hearing of the charge, voluntarily gave himself up. Another officer proved that when he had apprehended Mallett, he expressed a wish to fine Kelly, whom he believed to be the other man implicated, but Mallett said, "it's no use your going after Kelly, for it was Farthing that was with me in the house." This was the case for the prosecution. Mallett, who could not speak English, addressed some words to his fellow-prisoner, who said that Mallett did not wish to address the Court, and then declined on his own part making any defence, but solemnly declared he was not guilty. Mrs. Munro, the landlady of the house where the prisoners and Alice Triggs lodged, was called, to prove that the witness entertained an ill-will towards the prisoners, and she also stated that she had had occasion to go to the washhouse repeatedly in the course of the evening, and would venture to swear that nothing improper could have occurred in the intervals of her absence from it. Several witnesses were called to the character of the prisoners. Mr. Baron Vaughan summed up the case to the Jury, and left it to them to saw whether they thought the charge had been so fully substantiated as to warrant them in convicting the prisoners. The Jury, after an hour's consultation, returned a verdict of Guilty against both. Mr. Baron Vaughan twice asked them whether they were satisfied that the crime was completed? To which they answered in the affirmative, and the verdict was then recorded.
Their sentences were later commuted to transportation for life, probably because the evidence against them was so weak - they were convicted on the strength of one person's claims as to what she saw, a person who admitted bearing animosity towards them. They were consequently taken in a convict ship called the Layton the following year to New South Wales along with 188 other convicts. They arrived on the 8th November having left England almost five months earlier. Of Mellett's history in Australia nothing has been discovered.
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