SHOTS AT POLICE CHIEF

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 June 1936, Page 7

SHOTS AT POLICE CHIEF

FURTHER EVIDENCE f [by CABLE PRESS ASSN. COPYRIGHT.] MELBOURNE, June 16. At the police inquiry to-day Detective O’Keefe, resuming his evidence, said that after seeing Mrs. Orr, he realised that the shooting of Superintendent Brophy was not accidental. Witness made no attempt to question the car driver. William Maher, nor Mrs. Phillips. He was convicted, from what Mrs. Orr told him. that a crime had been committed.

The Royal Commissioner, Judge MacInodoe, then asked Mr. Ham, K.C. (representing the “Herald” and “Sun”) where his (Mr. Ham’s) cross-examina-tion was leading. Mr. Ham replied that it was very necessary to find out whether or not police officers had some motive for falsifying reports handed to the press. Judge Maclndoe: Your suggestion to date, is that Superintendent Brophy may have been shot by an infuriated husband?

Mr. Ham: That’s what we are here for. Superintendent Brophy was in circumstances which could be regarded as indiscreet, and, 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 false. His colleagues shared in that suspicion, and senior detectives lent' themselves to a falsification of the facts.

Frederick Millard, of West Coburgh gave evidence that he was stopped on his way home in his car, and he was asked to drive Superintendent Brophy to hospital. Superintendent Brophy told him that lie had been shot at Royal Park. Witness was under an impression that the shooting was accidental.

Doctor Stanley O’Loughlin, of St. Vincent’s Hospital, said that Superintendent Brophy was his patient on the night of the shooting. Superintendent Brophy told him that he had been shot, and witness gained the impression that the shooting had occurred while Superintendent Brophy was on duty. Next day, Supt. Brophy asked witness to keep pressmen away. Doctor O’Loughlin added that Sir Thomas Blarney had also asked him to keep the press away from Superintendent Brophy, as he wanted to prepare an official statement for release to the press. Doctor A. Carroll, Medical Superintendent at St. Vincent's Hospital, said that Superintendent Brophy told him, within a quarter of an hour of his admission, that he (Brophy) had received a telephone message to investigate a case at Royal Park, and that he went there with a friend, when two masked men fired at him.

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