“MOST PERFUNCTORY”

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 70, 15 December 1933, Page 11

“MOST PERFUNCTORY”

Inquiry Into Identity of Bridge Victim

COMMENTS OF JUDGE

(Received December 14, 7 p.m.)

Sydney, December 13.

In probate jurisdiction the Acting Chief Justice, Sir John Harvey, granted Pierce Lehane leave to swear to the death of his brother, William Lehane, who committed suicide from the Harbour Bridge on September 24, 1932. Due to mistaken identity the victim was buried as George Williams, a New Zealander.

Sir John Harvey declared that the coroner’s inquiry was a most perfunctory one, while the police had qccepted evidence of identification of the bridge victim without the slightest investigation.

William Lehane, who now is legally presumed dead, was possessed of considerable means, and probate of the estate wxs granted co his brother, Pierce Lehane.

. A strange set of circumstances associated with the identity of a Harbour Bridge victim of September 24, 1932, involve a New Zealander, George Williams, 57, of Papakura, said a Sydney message of October 18. A. battered body found on the concrete road beneath the bridge was identified as that of Williams. However. Mrs. Williams, in New Zealand, upon being communicated with, was unable to reconcile the description with that of her husband, and Leslie Dunlop, who identified the body as that of Williams, cannot be traced. It is now believed, in fact it is claimed, that the body was that of William Lehane, a retired sugar-cane worker, whs was in ill-health at that time and had stated that if he contemplated suicide lie would throw himself over the bridge Jo the concrete below and make a proper job of it. He was last seen on the very day the tragedy occurred with which Williams is linked.