However, it is interesting to note that Hewitt expressed his anger over people saying he was not robbed at all, which was probably a social commentary over the practices of many shopkeepers at the time who accumulated considerable wealth at th e diggings. All members of the party claimed to be confident of the identity of James Downey. The bushranger in question was said to be dressed in a light coat and moleskin trousers. Horsington said he had identified Downey amongst 13 or 14 men at a camp and indicated that he had seen him 3 or 4 times before at Lambing Flat, that he was a remarkable man whose identity could not be mistaken. The description he had given to the police was a man of 5 feet 11 inches , whose hair was “not light nor dark” and about 27 years of age. It was noted that he had given no further description despite Downey having had a large sandy beard and moustache. Similarly, Hewitt had mistakenly identified a butcher named James Goodluck as Frank Gardiner.

Constable James Tracey apprehended James Downey that night at Guerbey’s shop at Lambing Flat because he matched the outlaw’s description. Tracey suggested that Downey was “rather the worst for liquor” at the time and indicated that Downey’s horse was very tired, Wombat being some ten miles from where he accosted the prisoner. There was a coat and teapot strapped to his saddle. James Downey claimed he had travelled the 42 miles from the Weddin Mountains to Wombat. This claimed was supported by a number of businessmen who vouched that he had been at his mother’s place in the Weddin Mountains the morning of the robbery . In reviewing the not guilty verdict, the judge indicated that he would have come to the same conclusion. James appears to have been living around Bimbi in 1887, taking up a selection on 20 June which remains as Everslea. He also appears to have taken up in that year a 324 acre block on the Rossi Creek Run.