POLICE AND PRESS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 142, 17 June 1936, Page 7

POLICE AND PRESS.

MELBOURNE INQUIRY. Suggested Reason for Official Mis-statements. ROYAL PARK SHOOTING. United Press Association. —Copyright, r MELBOURNE, June 16. The Royal Commission which is inquiring into the shooting of Superintendent J. Brophy, of the Victorian Criminal Investigation Department, in Royal Park, near Parkville, on May 22, sat again to-day. Mr. Justice ■Macindoe presided. Detective O'Keefe stated that after he had seen Mrs. Orr, one of the passengers in the car with Mr. Brophy, he realised that the shooting of Mr. Brophy had not been accidental. Witness said he made no attempt to question the driver of the car, Maher, nor Mrs. Phillips, the other passenger. He was convinced from what Mrs. Orr had told him that a crime had been committed. The commissioner asked Mr. Wilbur Ham, K.C., counsel for the "Melbourne Herald" and the "Sun," where his crossexamination of witness was leading. Mr. Hatn replied that it, was very necessary to find out whether the police officers had some motive for falsifying the reports handed to the Press. Your suggestion to date is that Mr. Brophy may have been shot by an infuriated husband ? —That is we are here for. Mr. Brophy was in circumstances which could be regarded as indiscreet. Therefore he had something to hide and gave a false account of the manner in which he received his injuries. Anybody of ordinary intelligence would have suspected Mr. Bropliy's account to be false, continued Mr. Ham. His colleagues shared that suspicion, and senior detectives lent themselves to the falsification of the facts.

Douglas Gillison, a reporter on the "Argus," when shown a slip of paper relating to Mr. Brophy's case, said it certainly was not the one placed before the reporters by Detective Sloan.

Witness said tliat lie and other reporters had asked whether detectives were engaged on the affair, to which Sir Thomas Blarney had replied: "What can we do? The men were masked and a torch was flashed in Mr. Bropliy's face."

Sir Thomas had also said he did not know where the first statement to the Press about Mr. Brophy had originated. The hearing was adjourned.