PUKEKAWA MURDER.

Marlborough Express, Volume LIV, Issue 245, 15 October 1920, Page 4

PUKEKAWA MURDER.

PiIELIMINAEY T.UIAI*

£Pkes3 Association.] AUCKLAND, Oct. 14, The preliminary trial of Samnet Join)! Thvrn, chargc-d with the mur-* dor efi Sydney Seymour Eyre at Puke-ka-wa on August 21, began at Pukekohe ta-day before Mr Poynton, S-.-M, Mr E, V. Hunt, for the • prosecution, addressing the Coust, said that the case was a strong circumstantial one. It would be shown that the fatal shot was fired by one- who had intimate knowledge of the1 house. Thorn was the only one outside the family having that knowledge. Atthe time of the murder 'Jjhorn was working on Granville farm,* 18 miles from Eyre's place. The horse that was under Thorn's charge hack peculiarly-shaped shoes. The tracks' discovered shotted that it had been ridden between the two properties on August 2i. Eyre's; house contained two guns, neither of whichhad been fired recently. The gun inThorn's whare had been discharged. It took a cartridge of = the samecalibre a.s that used to kill Eyre. Thorn was the only possessor of cartridges of that particular brand within a radius of 20 miles. The- night of the murder was one of- two nights when Thorn had been left: alotte in the whare.. The evidence would show that while Eyre was aAvay, and after his return, Thorn had forced jra moral relations on Mrs Eyre. Thorn• had threatened Eyre's life before. He had said to Mrs Eyre: "Don't you

wish he Avas dead?" Eyre's sons had

heard Thorn sneaking into' their mother's room at night. The motive

suggested was revenge for being discharged from a good position and < fair being deprived of the opportunity- for continuing the relations which were on Mrs: Eyre. Millicent Eyre, widow of the deceased, stated that on the night of August 24th there was nobody fit the house except the members of tho family. Everyone was in bed. At about nine o'clock she saw that ih» front door was locked. After 'having

been asleep for some time she wa»awakened by the* accused's dog.barking: under the boys' room. The dog; had been taken away by Thorn wheap he left the farm, bxit it had com© back by itself.. She again went to sleep, to be awakened later by the shot of a gun. She heard quick, heavy steps by the side of the house apparently going towards the bach gate. She called to her husband, and getting no answer struck a light. She discovered that the top of his head had been blown away. Between. five and ten minutes after the boys left the house for help she heard a horse cross the bridge below tb.o house, apparently going away from the house. . ■■ Mrs Eyre n.lso said that the accused visited the farm on August 24th. He had often told her that he loved her and he had asked her to go and live with him. She admitted that relations had been improper between the* accused and herself. They continued after her husband returned. She could not prevent him, because ho would have told her husband and would have had her name dragged in the gutter. He would have got her divorced. The 'witness was still in the bos when the case- was adjourned.