In Sydney, in the decades around Federation, Richard Meagher (1866–1931) was a prominent criminal defence solicitor, parliamentarian, city council alderman and player in the emerging Labor Party. For many, his name was also a byword for unethical and unscrupulous practice in public life. Patrick Mullins’ The Stained Man tells the story of Meagher’s rise, fall, and rise again.

Review: The Stained Man: A Crime, a Scandal, and the Making of a Nation – Patrick Mullins (Scribe)

The book begins with the high-profile “Dean case”, as it came to be known. George Dean was a handsome and well-liked young ferry captain. In March 1895, he was arrested and charged with the attempted murder of his wife Mary. Dean stood accused of poisoning Mary with arsenic and strychnine while she was recovering from the birth of the couple’s first child.

The defence fell to Meagher, who saw the case through a committal hearing and then to a trial before Justice William Windeyer. Despite Meagher’s best efforts, Dean was convicted.

Before Dean could be sentenced, questions were being asked about Windeyer’s handling of the trial and the accuracy of the jury’s finding. Public meetings and an organised defence committee pressed for review. There was a large element of sexism in this. The popular desire was to believe in a man’s innocence over a woman’s accusations. This was especially the case after Meagher had thoroughly besmirched the reputations of both Mary Dean and her mother, Caroline Seymour, accusing them of associations with prostitution and criminality. Dean’s motive also remained obscure.

Meagher seems to have genuinely believed in Dean’s innocence throughout the trial. But in the hubbub that followed, he extracted an unexpected confession from Dean. He kept this to himself. He allowed his senior partner, parliamentarian William Crick, to call for a royal commission into the case in ignorance of Dean’s guilt.

The government obliged, at considerable public expense. The ensuing royal commission heard evidence from more than a hundred witnesses. Dean’s conviction was overturned and he returned to his job on the harbour ferry.

Meagher rode the wave of publicity generated by the Dean case to become one of Sydney’s best-known citizens. Capitalising on his new-found fame, he stood as a protectionist for an inner-city seat at the 1895 parliamentary elections.

Then, in an extraordinary act of misjudgement........

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