MELBOURNE INQUIRY

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 223, 17 June 1936, Page 11

MELBOURNE INQUIRY

Statement by Counsel for

Newspapers

EVIDENCE OF DOCTORS

By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.

(Received June 16, 8 p.m.)

Melbourne, June 15.

At the inquiry by a Royal Commission into the circumstances surrounding the shooting of Police Inspector Brophy, Detective O’Keefe, resuming his evidence, said that after seeing Mrs. Orr he realised that the shooting was not accidental. Witness made no attempt to question the car-driver, Maher, or Mrs. Phillips. He was convinced from what Mrs. Orr told him that a crime had been committed.

The Royal Commissioner, Judge MacIndoe, asked Mr. Wilbur Ham, K.C., where his cross-examination was leading.

Mr. Ham, who is appearing for the “Herald" and “Sun,” replied that it was very necessary to find out whether police officers had some motive for falsifying reports handed to the Press. Judge Macindoe: Your suggestion to date is that Brophy may have been shot by an infuriated husband? Mr. Ham: That is what we are here for. Brophy was in circumstances which could be regarded as indiscreet, therefore he had something to hide and gave a false account of the manner in which he received his injuries, while anybody of ordinary intelligence would suspect his account was false. His colleagues shared that suspicion and senior detectives lent themselves to the falsification of facts.

Frederick Millard, West Cobii’-gh, gave evidence that he was stopped on his way home in his car and was asked to drive Brophy to hospital. Brophy told him he had been shot at Royal Park. Witness was under the Impression that the shooting was accidental. Dr. Stanley O’Loughlin, of St. Vincent’s Hospital, said that Brophy was his patient on the night of the shooting. Brophy told him he had been shot and witness gained the impression that it had occurred while he was on duty. Next day Brophy asked witness to keep Pressmen away.

Dr. O’Loughlin added that Sir Thomas Blarney also asked him to keep the Press away from Brophy as he wanted to prepare an official statement for release to the Press. Dr. A. Carroll, medical superintendent of St. Vincent’s Hospital, said that Brophy told him within a quarter of an hour of his admission that he (Brophy) received a telephone message to investigate a case at Royal Park. He went there with a friend and two masked men fired at him.

Douglas Gillison, reporter on the “Argus,” when shown a slip of paper relating to Brophy’s case, declared that it was certainly not the one placed before reporters by Detective Sloan. He and other reporters asked whether detectives were engaged on the affair, to which Sir Thomas Blarney, chief of police, replied: “What can we do? The men were masked and a torch was flashed into Brophy's face.” Blarney also said that he did not know where the first Press statement about Brophy had originated. The inquiry was adjourned.