PERTH MURDER.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 215, 11 September 1925, Page 6

PERTH MURDER.

STORY AT INQUEST. STARTLING FACTS ELICITED RELATIONS WITH ACCUSED GIRL, (From Our Own Correspondent.) ' SYDNEY, September 3. The silence surrounding the Perth Government House tragedy was broken this ' week when the inquest on Cyril Gidley fourth engineer on the West Australian State steamer Kangaroo was opened Audrey Jacob, aged 20, was charged with murder. The mother of the accused startled * the Court by her evidence in which she stated that Gidley had been brought to the house by her daughter, and had almost immediately asked their consent to the marriage, when he was informed that he would have to wait until Audrey was older. ' Gidley then started to make mischief, and brought about an estrangement, parting her from ber husband, who left home. His next suggestion, she said, was that they should make an addition to the house, in which smuggled goods could be stored and dealt in so that he could get money to set up housekeeping. He had also suggested raiding her husband's room at a boardinghouse, seizin" the deeds of the house, which could be put in his name, and he would go on with the payments. She had refused this, and became frightened of Gidley, who completely dominated her daughter. On one occasion her daughter had returned home very moody in manner, and witness found her sobbing in her room. She said nothing was wrong, but her mother noticed a j mark on her shoulder, looking as if someI one had clutched it. Shortly after this Gidley induced her daughter to go to live in Perth, and helped her to pack her clothes. The girl disappeared for a time, and Gidley wrote three threatening letters to witness, stating that if she did not tell him where Audrey- had gone he would take action. I Eventually her daughter returned and said that Gidley had found her, and then said he would not be engaged to a girl who lived away from home, and whose father was separated from her mother. ,He said that the Masons objected, and if j matters continued as they were the en-' 1 gagement would have to be broken off. Gidley told witness that if her husband came in while they were raidng her husband's room for the deeds, he (Gidley)! would knock him on the head and settle him, as he could get assistance to get rid of the body. She affected a reconciliation with her husband, and told him . about the smuggling proposal, and they | reported it to the police, with the result that smuggled goods were discovered in Gidley's room by the detectives. Her daughter had recently gone to Perth to continue her studies at the technical arfa school. Her husband's evidence was to the effect that he had informed Gidley that as long as he had a shot left in his locker Audrey would never be Gidley's wife. He was afraid himself, after the smuggled goods had been found by the police in Gidley's rooms, that the latter would do for him, and he told the detectives that if he was murdered they would know who had done fqr him. | To allow for the preparation of further [evidence the inquest was adjourned.