Murder charge after explosion in house

Press, 12 February 1981, Page 2

Murder charge after explosion in house

PA New Plymouth The police have charged a New Plymouth man with the murder of George Edward Banks after a house fire and explosion in New Plymouth on Tuesday afternoon. Detective Senior-Sergeant B. A. Ramsay, of the New Plymouth C. 1.8., said that the man was to appear in the District Court at ‘ New Plymouth late yesterday. Mr Banks, aged 75, and three other persons were in the-house at the time-of the fire. j Lesley Mary McLachlan, aged 39, Thomas Harris, aged 53, and Maree Dawn Gadsby, aged 25, were taken to Taranaki Base Hospital suffering from burns of varying severity.

Mr Harris was reported yesterday to be in a factory condition, and Mrs McLachlan and Mrs Gadsby

’were reported to be in fair but stable condition. Mrs McLachlan, a daughter of Mr Banks, suffered burns ot 30 per cent of the body, Mr Harris suffered burns to the legs, and Mrs Gadsby who is Mr Bank’s granddaughter, suffered minor burns. The police believe that the fire was started by an accelerant. The badly burned body of Mr Banks was found in the house when policemen and firemen arrived at the sceqe. Sergeant V. R. Story said that Mrs McLachlan’s two pre-school children were in a car parked outside the house at the time of the explosion, and were not injured. Detective Senior-Sergeant Ramsay said that the cause of Mr Banks’s death was not known, and a post-mortem examination would be held.