DETECTIVES GIVE EVIDENCE

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21810, 16 June 1936, Page 11

DETECTIVES GIVE EVIDENCE

♦ POLICE ENQUIRY IN MELBOURNE INFORMER’S NAME REGARDED AS SACRED (Received June 15* U. 30 p.m.) MELBOURNE, June 15. The Royal Commission which is enquiring into the shooting of Superintendent John O’Connell Brophy (chief of the Victorian Criminal Investigation branch) continued its session to-day. Judge Macindoe is the commissioner and Mr L. Stretton is assisting him.

Detective-Inspector A. T. McKerral, chief of the Criminal Investigation Department, gave evidence regarding the conflicting stories of the wounding of Brophy, and the measures adopted to clear the matter up, as the “newspapers on the Monday following the shooting published information in which there were discrepancies and departures from fact.” The shooting was originally believed to have been accidental, but later Detective Carey told witness that he had seen Brophy at the hospital and ascertained that it was not accidental. Sir Thomas Blarney, the Chief Commissioner, then instructed witness to correct the accident story and give the newspapers the true facts. Mr Stretton asked the witness: “If an informer rang you in order to make an appointment to tell you about a prospective bank hold-up, would you meet him right on the steps of that rank?” McKerral: Probably no.

Mr Stretton; Would you, as Brophy purports to have done', meet the informer right in the centre of an area where motor bandits were operating? McKerral: Circumstances are different. You have usually to keep an appointment at the spot named by the informer. Otherwise he will not come.

McKerral added that he saw nothing wrong in what Brophy did. It was quite good detective work. The doctor attending Brophy believed the whole thing was accidental, although the wounds were widely distributed.

Detective-Sergeant H. Carey detailed the efforts he made to find out the facts of the Brophy shooting. He said Brophy was doubtful whether he could identify his assailants, but he hoped to pick up an informer who might help. Carey added that after his investigations he now planned taking “a certain action in a certain direction, but it is not desirable to divulge what is going on.” Mr Stretton: Do you agree witii Brophy that the name of the informer in this case is sacred? Carey; I do. Detective O’Keefe is at this moment obtaining information that might be of value.