THE MACKAY MURDER.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXII, Issue LXII, 29 November 1911, Page 8

THE MACKAY MURDER.

ACCUSED BEFORE THE COURT

BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT.

Received Nov. 29, 9.35 a.m.

BRISBANE, Nov. 29. In the Police Court proceedings were commenced at Mackay against George Silva, the Cingalese charged with .the murder of Agnes Ching and five children. Accused was employed at Ching's farm. The arresting constable detailed a conversation with the prisoner, who said that when Ching left home he was shooting a hawk with Ching's gun, and afterwards went to sleep near the railway. He met Ching returning home, and told him he had not seen his family. After the victims were discovered, prisoner went to inform the police, and carried the clothes he had been wearing daring the day in a parcel, but as he; had a galling knee, he threw them away. Witness said, MYou're fooling. You knew who murdered the family." He replied, "God knows they were good to me; I never murdered them." When the bodies of the two missing children were found the prisoner broke down and cried. The tracks near where they were found were compared with prisoner's boots. Another police witness declared that the prisoner admitted burning the clothes he was wearing during the day of the murder. Witness found in the remains of the fire a portion of the clothes ,a gold watch, razor and a medicine bottle which prisoner claimed. The prisoner told witness that he and a neighboring Hindoo farmer, Dooley Khan, and a white man conspired to murder the family a few Sundays before and added: "Dooley Khan shot the mother and killed the baby beside her; I shot Maudie and Hughie when Edie Dooley returned to school. I told them that their mother and children were waiting for them at the back of the paddock. We went together, Dooley Khan waiting with a pea rifle and he shot them. Khan wanted to marry May Ching and get the farm; I wanted Maudie, but mother objected." The prisoner admitted that he used a revolver and shot Maudie and Hughie.