PUKEKOHE MURDER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIV, Issue LIV, 15 October 1920, Page 5

PUKEKOHE MURDER

THORN BEFORE THE COURT

'I'NITin Pb£S9 AsaOCl^iifON)

AUCKLAND, This Day. The preliminary trial of Samuel John Thorn, charged with the murder of Sydney Seymour Eyre at Pukokawa on August 24th, 'began at Pukekohe today before Air Poynton, S.M, Mir R. P. Hunt, for the prosecution, addressing the Court, said the case was a strong circumstantial one. It would bo shown that the fatal shot Avas fired hy one who had an intimate knowledge of the house, and Thorn was the only one outside the family having that knowledge. At the time of the murder Thorn aviis working on Granville’ e» farm 18 miles from Eyre’s. The horse under

Thorn’s charge had peculiarly shaped shoes, anti tracks discovered showed it had been ridden between the two, properties on tho night of August 24. Eyre’s house contained two guns, neither of which had been fired recently. The gun in Thorn’s whare had been discharged. It took a cartridge of the same calibre as that used to kill Eyre. Thorn was the only possessor of cart-ridges-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 alone in his whare. Evidence would show that when Eyre was away, and .after his return, Thorn had forced immoral relations on Mrs' Evro Thorn -had threatened, Evreja life before witnesses, and bad said to MrsEvro, “Don’t you wish he was dead?” Evre’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 being deprived of tho opportunity for continuing relations which were enforced on Mrs Eyjte. . . ■ Mrs Eyre was beginning her evidence at the ndjonrnnient. Millicent Eyre, widow of deceased, stated that on the night of August 24th there was nobody at the house except members of the family. Everyone t was in bed about 9 o’clock. She saw the front door was locked. Alter having been asleep some time she was * awakened by 'accused’s dog barking under the boys’room. The dog had been taken away by Thorn when ho left the farm, but had come back by itself. She again went to sleep, to be awakened later by tho shot of a gun. She heard quick, heavy steps by the side of the house, apparently going towards th© back gate, She called to her husband, and, getting no answer, Struck a light and discovered that the top of his head had been blown away. Between five and ten minutes after the boys left the house fbr help she heard a horse Cross the bridge below the house, apparently going away from the ' house, Mrs Eyre also said accused visited the farm on August 24th. He had often told her he loved her; and asked her to go and live with him. She admitted I that relations had been improper between accused and herself. They continued after her husband returned. She could not prevent him, because he would hive told her husband and have had her name dragged in the gutter and get her divorced. • fitness was still in tho box when the case was adjourned. The trial of Samuel Thorne on a charge of murder was continued. Dr. Wake gave evidence that Eyre ■was apparently murdered while asleep by the firing of a gun close to his head froifi outside of the window. Df. C. Smith gave evidence that be found about 40 pellets of shot at the base of the skull. Ho concluded from this that the shot would have been fired more easily by a left-handed than by a right-handed man. He considered it impossible for the shot to have beoh fired* from inside the mom