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John Gavin (convict)John Gavin (or John Gaven) (1829 – 6 April 1844) was the first European settler – and child – to be legally executed in colonial Western Australia.[a][1] He was executed for murder at the age of fifteen.[2] LifeBorn in 1829, Gavin[3] was convicted of an offence while still a juvenile, and was transported to Western Australia as a Parkhurst apprentice, arriving on board Shepherd in October 1843. On 3 April 1844, he was tried for the murder of his employer's son, 18-year-old George Pollard. He confessed[4] to killing the sleeping victim with an adze,[5] but he seemed unaware of a rational motive. Three days later he was publicly hanged outside the Round House in Fremantle "on a gallows erected ten yards [9.1 m] north of the Round House entrance."[6]: 2 After a death mask had been taken and his brain studied for "scientific purposes" he was buried in the sand hills to the south without a ceremony.[4] Notes
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