KILLED A STRANGER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20400, 5 May 1928, Page 7

KILLED A STRANGER.

QUEER MURDER CHARGE. A MIDNIGHT VISITOR. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, April 19. Extraordinary circumstances surround tn«charge of murder which has been preferred against Walter Henry Avery, of Redfern, Sydney. The dead man and the man who has been charged appear to have been unknown to each other; the man now charged reported the facts to the police himself; reports concerning both parti.v are that they were quiet, even tempered citizens; and, finally there is a suggestion that the whole affair may have been the result of a mistake. At 11.30 last Saturday night Avery walked into the Redfern Police Station and told the officer in charge that half an hour earlier he had been awakened by a rattling on his front door. Hq called out. “Who’s there,” and not receiving any reply ho went down to investigate. Ho switched on the electric light in the front downstairs room and opened the door partly. Almost on the instant he received a heavy blow on the left eyo, whether from the door being pushed suddenly against him or from a fist, he was unable to say. At the same time, he thought that the stranger -who had pushed in the half-open door had struck him. Retaliating promptly. Avery struck back, at the same time closing the door on the man who was trying to pash it wide open. The visitor fell back on the stone paving of the verandah and lay there unconscious. Not a word was spoken by either man. Mrs Avery then came downstairs and concurred with her husband’s decision to inform the police. Avery returned with the oolice and the stranger, afterwards identified as James Taylor, of Rockdale, was conveyed to hospital, where he was admitted suffering from a wound over the left eye and from concussion. His condition gradually beoarae worse and within a few hours ho died. Avery was charged with murder—the most extraordinary charge, it is said, that has ever been preferred against any man in such circumstances. , , , Mrs Taylor told the police that her husband was invariably sober, and she was certain that ho did hot know Avery. Mrs Avery was eually certain that Avery did not know Tavlor. and she corroborates her husband’s sto'rv of his awakening when the door rattled. “The police have been unable to solve the mvsterv of Taylor's death, for it seems certain lha't Taylor had no reason in visit Avery’s house, and much less to assault him. Tho murder charge still hangs over Avery, but it is more than likely that it will bo reduced to manslaughter.