MELBOURNE TRUCK MURDER

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22340, 2 March 1938, Page 11

MELBOURNE TRUCK MURDER

ACQUITTAL OF FOUR ACCUSED

(Received March 1, 11.46 p.m.)

MELBOURNE, March 1

Four men, who were charged with the murder of John Thomas Demsey, a truck driver, were acquitted at the direction of Mr Justice MacFarlane. The men were Roy McFarlane, Matthew Francis O’Keeffe, William Grahams, and Harold Reeve. The defence was an alibi, the four accused giving evidence that they were home or with friends most of the time on October 11, the day on which it was alleged that Demsey was murdered. They denied that they had anything to do with the murder, directly or indirectly. Mr Justice MacFarlane, directing the jury to acquit, said: “The police have not proved their case beyond reasonable doubt, and have produced no evidence which would have enabled a Jury to infer, as distinct from guesswork, that the men were guilty of the alleged offence.” [The body of John Thomas Demsey, a truck-driver, was found buried at Kinglake West on November 2 last year. The most widespread and intense investigation in the history of the Victorian police followed. Demsey was driving a truck carrying wool valued at £3OO from Bendigo to Melbourne on October 11, 1937, when he disappeared. There was no further news of him till the truck was found by picnickers, hidden in dense bush at Kinglake West, 42 miles from Melbourne. The following day Demsey’s body was found buried in a sack near i.he truck.]