PUKEKAWA MURDER

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 15 October 1920, Page 5

PUKEKAWA MURDER

PRELIMINARY TRIAL

(BY TELEGRAPH—PttESS ASSOCIATION.;

AUCKLAND, Oct. 14. The preliminary trial of Samuel John Thorn, charged with the murder ol Sydney Symour Eyre, at Pukekawa, on August 24:, was bgun at Pukekohe to-day before Mr Poynton, S.M. Mr i J. Hunt, who appeared for the prosecution, addressing the Court, said the <-:ase wa s a strong circumstantial one. It would be shown that the fatal shot was fired by one who had intimate knowledge of the house, and Thorn was I the only one outside the family having that knowledge. At th e time of the murder Thorn was working on Granville Farm, 18 miles from Eyre's. The horse under Thorn's charge had peculiarly shaped shoes, and the tracks discovered showed it had been ridden hotwan the two properties on the night of August 24. iyre's house contained two guns, neither of which had been fired recently. A gun in Thorn's whare had been discharged. It took a cartridge of the same calibre as that used to kill Eyre. Thorn wa s the only possessor of the cartridges of that particular br.and within a radius of 21 miles. The night of the murder was owe of two nights when Thorn had been left alone in his whare, and evidence would show that while Eyre was awuy and after his return. Thorn had forced immoral relations on Mrs Thorn. Thorn had threatened Eyre's life before. Witnesses had said to Mrs Eyre: "Don't you wish he was dead." Eyre's sons had heard Thorn sneaking into their mother's room at night. The mo'fcive suggested was revenge for being discharged from his position and being deprived of the opp«rtunity for continuing the relations which were enforced on Mrs Eyre. Millioent Eyre, widow of the deceased, stated that the property of 600 acres owned by her late husband was worth between £15,000 and £20,000. On the nigh£ of August 24 there was; nobody at the house except members of yhe family, and everyone was in bed about 9 p.m. Her husband and Phillip were the last to go to bed, and she saw that the front door was closed. She was awakened after having been asleep some time by the accused's dog barking under the boys' room. This dog Bob had been taken away by Thorn when he left the farm, but had come1 back by itself. The dog was barking furiously, and she called to it to lie down, which it did after a time, and she again went off to sleep. She was awakened later by the, shot of a gun. ■ She heard quick, heavy steps up the side, of the house, apparently going towards the back gate. She called to her "husband, but. getting ■no answer, she struck a light, and discovered that ■ the top of his head had been blown away. Between five and ten minutes after the boys had left | the house for help she heard a horse cross a bridge below the house, apparently going away from the house. . In further evidence, Mrs Eyre said! the accused last visited the. farm on August 24. He had often told her he loved her, arid had asked her to go and live with him. She admitted relations had been improper between ac- ■ cused and herself, and they continued after her husband returned. She could not prevent him, because he said he j would "put me away to my' husband, expose me, drag my name in the gutter, ' and get me divorced." I

She saw the accused at tbe Tuakau Police-station after the murder. He asked her then what made her think he killed her husband, and sre^ replied: "Circumstances." He asked,* "What circumstances?" And she answered, "You knew the position of his bed and everything about the hlouse.'' He replied, "True as I N am here, I never did it." ■ -

Witness was still in the box when the case was adjourned.