PARK HOLD-UP

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22447, 17 June 1936, Page 13

PARK HOLD-UP

FURTHER EVIDENCE MELBOURNE SENSATION POLICE AND JOURNALISTS NATURE OF INFORMATION By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright (Received Juno 16, 9.25 p.m.) MELBOURNE. June 16 The Royal Commission which is inquiring into the shooting of Superintendent J. Brophy, of the Victorian Criminal Investigation Department, in Royal Park, near Parkville, on May 22, sat again to-day. Mr. Justice Macindoe presided. Detective O'Keefe stated that after he had seen Mrs. Orr, one of the passengers in the car with Mr. Brophy, he realised that the shooting of Mr. Brophy had not been accidental.

Witness said he made no attempt to question the driver of the car, Maher, nor Mrs. Phillips, the other passenger. He was convinced from what Mrs. Orr had told him that a crime had been committed. The Commissioner asked Mr. Wilbur Ham, K.C., counsel for the Melbourne Herald and Sun, where his cross-exam-ination of witness was leading. Mr. Ham replied that it was very necessary to find out whether the police officers had some motive for falsifying the reports handed to the press. Suggested Reason for Shooting

Your suggestion to date is that Mr. Brophy may have been shot by an infuriated husband? —That is what we are here for. Mr. Brophy was in circumstances which could be regarded as indiscreet. Therefore he had something to hide and gave a false account of the manner in which he received his injur-

Anvbody of ordinary intelligence would have suspected Mr. Brophy's account to be false, continued Mr. Ham. His colleagues shared that suspicion, and senior detectives lent themselves to the falsification of the facts. Frederick Millard, of West Coburg, said he was stopped on his way home in his car on the night of May 22 and was asked to drive Mr. Brophy to hospital. Mr. Brophy told him he had been shot at Royal Park. Witness never had the impression that the shooting was accidental. Keeping Facts Prom The Press Stanley O'Loughlin, of St. Vincent's Hospital, said that Mr. Brophy was his patient on the night of the shooting. The wounded man told him he had been shot and witness gained the impression that it had occurred while Mr. Brophy was on duty. Next day, Mr. Brophy asked witness to keep reporters away. Witness added that the Chief of Police, Sir Thomas Blarney, also had asked him to keep reporters away from Mr. Brophy as he wanted to prepare an official statement for release to the

press. Dr. A. Carroll, medical superintendent of St. Vincent's Hospital, said Mr. Brophy told him within a quarter of an hour of his admission that he had received a telephone message to investigate a case at Royal Park, that he went there with a friend and that two masked men fired at him. Evidence of a Reporter Douglas Gillison, a reporter on the Argus, when shown a slip of paper relating to Mr. Brophy's case, said it certainlv was not the one placed before the reporters by Detective Sloan. Witness said that he and other reporters had asked whether detectives were engaged on the affair, to which Sir Thomas Blarney had replied: "What can we do? The men were masked and a torch was flashed in Mr. Brophy's face." Sir Thomas had also said he did not know where the first statement to the Press about Mr. Brophy had originated. The Rearing was adjourned.