BOMB OUTRAGE INQUEST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23492, 5 May 1938, Page 22

BOMB OUTRAGE INQUEST

REMARKABLE EVIDENCE " MASS OF CONTRADICTIONS " (From Our Own Correspondent) SYDNEY, Apl. 29. One of the most remarkable inquests held in Sydney ended this week in the Parramatta district, the coroner (Mr G. R. Williams) returning a finding of murder by person or persons unknown. The inquest concerned the deaths of Alfred Ernest Smith and his wife, victims of a bomb outrage at their home at Lidcombe early on January 29. Smith, an organiser of the Meat Industry Union, had been involved in a series of industries disputes at the State abattoirs. He had earned the enmity, or at least the displeasure, of a large militant section of the union by his methods of conciliation and his opposition to the strike weapon. Searching questions were asked of union witnesses, and all the coroner could say in his summing-up was that there had been a "mass of contradiction."

The most sensational aspect of the inquest was the submission by detectives of an alleged confession by Sidney Baden Powell Shannon, an employee at the abattoirs, that he had killed the Smiths. The alleged statement contained the words: " I am sure I did it, but how, I do not know." But Shannon is now an inmate of a lunatic asylum,, and has been there since a few days after the crime. His relatives claim that the tragedy. caused him to go insane, because Smith was his friend, and the outrage preyed on his mind. Shannon's wife said that he was at home and in bed at the time of the tragedy. Other evidence was that Shannon, a former pugilist, had been badly affected by punching received during his ring career. There was a direct conflict in medical evidence concerning Shannon's sanity. A psychiatrist expressed the opinion that Shannon was sane. The superintendent of the asylum in which Shannon is an inmate said emphatically that Shannon was insane.

The coroner said that the evidence showed that if there was anybody who had no motive for the murder of Smith and his wife, Shannon would appear to be that man. Shannon had received through Smith's help one of the best jobs,at the State abattoirs. There was no apparent reason why Shannon should harm Smith. There was no evidence at all to cause any inference that Smith had committed suicide.

The case, said Mr Williams, was a mass of extraordinary contradictions. A great discrepancy which had given him concern was the question whether Shannon was sane or insane. Certainly the medical men had seen Shannon at different times, but one had said he was sane and the other that he was insane. He would say nothing further on this aspect. There was contradiction of opinions as to the positions of Smith and his wife when they met their death. Another contradiction was the evidence concerning gelignite. The coroner complimented the detectives engaged on the case on the "wonderful work they had done."