HUNT SUCCEEDS

Grey River Argus, 13 August 1946, Page 5

HUNT SUCCEEDS

Arrest in North Sydney MAN CHARGED WITH THE MURDER (Rec. 8.21). SYDNEY, August 12. After being arrested, at the gunpoint, in a guest house, Sidney Grant, aged 28, was later charged at the North Sydney Police Court to-day with the murder of Detective V. D. Ahearn, at Matraville yesterday. He was remanded to the Central Police Court on August 20, and bail was refused. * The accused was taken from the Court handcuffed to a police officer end heavily escorted. Three other police cars followed the car which took him to the North Sydney Police Station. The police who followed him into the station carried four Thompson sub-machine-guns, and tw’o ammunition cases, which, they said, had been found in some scrub near Roseville. Following the biggest man hunt ever organised by the New South Wales police, a patrol car vent to the north Sydney guest, house, and three constables covered the exits, while a sergeant and a detective went upstairs. With guns drawn, they opened an unlocked door, and they found accused sitting at a table eating. There was a struggle, ' but there was no shooting. Grant’s Companion EARLY ARREST EXPECTED (Rec. 9.5). SYDNEY, August 12. The police are now confident of the early arrest of Keith George Hope, aged 23, who was the other man in the car on Sunday afternoon at Matraville with Sidney Grant when Detective Ahearn was murdered.

Hope comes from Melbourne, and it is expected that he will try and return there. It has been established that the pistol which fired the fatal shots at Detective Ahearn was registered in Victoria, and that it was reported as lost or stolen, in 1942. Commenting on questions as to how one oi’ these two men had the pistol in his possession when he entered the Long Bay Gaol to visit the women prisoners, the N.S.W. Minister of Justice, Mr Downing, said to-day that the authorities have no legal right to search any person visiting a gaol, unless such person had been arrested and charged. No physical contact between the visitors and the prisoners was possible.