BRISBANE DETECTIVE OFFICE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3833, 30 August 1927, Page 17

BRISBANE DETECTIVE OFFICE.

WRECKED BY EXPLOSION. SYDNEY, August 19. One of the meet sensational episodes in Australian police history during recent years was the wrecking early last Sunday morning of the office of the criminal investigation branch of the Brisbane police department by an explosion that shook practically the whole of the city. Though there may have been some deeper motive behind the outrage, the detectives formed the opinion that the explosion was engineered to destroy evidence then in the office of the guilt of some person who was to come up for trial shortly. Acting on this assumption, they quickly arrested a miner, Albert Orchard, 42 years, who had already been committed for trial on a charge of burglary. The detective office, situated at the corner of two streets, was reduced to wreckage. lhe whole of one wall was blown out, stones being hurled to the opposite side of the street. The iron roof and rafters were lifted into the air and blown to atoms. When the explosion occurred bursts of flame leapt to the sky, and a shower of masonry and shattered wooodwork and iron hurtled through the air and strewed the ground with debris. The force of the explosion was so terrific that it awakened a slumbering city. Reserves from the police barracks were aroused, and, hurrying into their clothes, arrived at the wrecked office in time to hold in check a large crowd that had gathered. One detective, on night duty, was dozing in his cubicle in a building detached from the main office, and was found to be suffering from shock. Another would have been right at the seat of the explosion had he delayed leaving on a task a few minutes.

When the wreckage was examined by daylight the scene was one of ruin and desolation. The building was formerly used as a church manse. The middle section was a jumble of smashed timbers, broken timbers, and office furniture. In the property room, where were stored old records and unclaimed goods, most of them the recovered proceeds of robberies, the explosion and fire had caused great damage, but few of the destroyed records were of value. In a room used by clerks, typewriters, pigeonholes, and files of documents relating to criminals and crimes were piled in confusion. The most valued of the office’s records—the fingerprint museum—was not damaged. It is believed that the explosion was caused by gelignite, with a lighted fuse attached, which had been flung" through a window of the property room'. The fact that the latter was apparently the seat of the explosion led investigators to the conclusion that the person who caused it wished to destroy primarily something that the detective office held and which was incriminating him in some other matter.