MILLGROVE TRAGEDY

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 125, 23 November 1923, Page 7

MILLGROVE TRAGEDY

JURY DISAGREE AT RE-TRIAL.

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPIRIQHI.) (Received 23rd November, 1 p.m.) ■MELBOURNE, This Day. The jury disagreed in the. re-trial of David Kelly on a charge of the manslaughter of Ada Florence Overall, and he was remanded till the December sessions.

The High Court at Melbourne, on 27th October, on an appeal from the Full Court of Victoria, unanimously quashed the conviction of David Kelly, who, on 20tU June, was found guilty of the manslaughter of Ada Florence Overall, at MiUgrove,. in June of last year. The prisoner admitted having burnt the body. At the first trial the jury disagreed, and at the second, Kelly was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. The High Court found that a miscarriage of justice had occurred at the secoiidt trial, in that, although the Crown Prosecutor had put the charge of murder only to the jury, a charge of manslaughter was subsequently sprung on Kelly, when he was afforded no proper opportunity of defending himself. The conviction was accordingly quashed, with a new trial only on a charge of manslaughter. The Court added that it was of opinion that accused,-having been found not guilty of murder, could not again be prosecuted or tried on that charge.