SHOOTING TRIAL

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29983, 19 November 1962, Page 14

SHOOTING TRIAL

Photo Said To Be Of Friend (N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) MELBOURNE, Nov. 17.

A German house painter, charged with having wounded the former New Zealand hairdresser, Joshua Patrick Liddel, told the Melbourne Criminal Court yesterday that a photograph police had obtained from bis immigration papers was not of himself, but of a friend. Hans Kurt Gerbhardt, aged 24, said he was unable to say how the photograph came to be included in his immigration file. Gerbhardt has pleaded not guilty to a charge of having wounded Liddel on June 16. with intent to murder, and, alternatively, wounded with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

Liddel was seriously wounded in the chest, leg and arm when he surprised an intruder in his Melbourne city salon on June 16, and grappled with him. The intruder ran from the salon after the shooting, leaving a briefcase behind.

Earlier in the trial Liddel’s assistant. Miss Jacqueline Winnett, told the Court that several days after the shooting she had identified the photograph as that of the man who had shot Liddel. Detective-Sergeant Jack Ford and Senior Detective Douglas Baker told the Court that when they went to Singapore to institute extradition proceedings against Gerbhardt. Gerbhardt had an original print of the photograph in his wallet. The detective said Gerbhardt told them it was a photograph of himself, taken on a holiday in Switzerland. The hearing was adjourned until Monday.