BROPHY CASS

Stratford Evening Post, Volume IV, Issue 159, 17 June 1936, Page 3

BROPHY CASS

INQUIRY GOES ON. POLICE CHIEF. SHOT. By An Infuriated Husband? FALSE REPORTS. Pre«ss Association —Copyright. Melbourne, June 16. The inquiry into the wounding of Superintendent Brophy of the Melbourne police was continued to-day. Detective O'Keei'e, resuming his evidence, said that after seeing Mrs. Orr lie realised the shooting was not accidental, lie made no attempt to question the car driver Maher or Mrs. Phillips. He was convinced from what Mrs. Orr told him that a crime had been committed. The Royal Commissioner, Mr. Justice Maclndoe, asked Mr. W. Ham, K.C., where his cross-examination was leading. Mr. Ham, who is appearing for the Herald and the Sun, replied that it was very necessary to find out whether police officers had some motive for falsifying the reports handed to the Press. His Honour: '"Your suggestion lo date is that Mr. Brophy may have been shot by an infuriated husband?"

"That is what we are here for," said Mr. Hani. "Mr. Brophy was in circumstances which could he regarded as indiscreet. Therefore he had something to hide. He gave a false account of the manner in which he received his injuries, while anybody of ordinary intelligence > would suspect his account was false. His colleagues shared that suspicion and senior detectives lent themselves to falsification of the facts." Frederick Millard, West Coburgh, gave evidence that he was stopped on his way home in his car and was asked to drive Mr. Brophy to hospital. Mr. Brophy told him he had been shot at Royal Park. Mr. Millard was under the impression that :ne shooting was accidental. Dr. Stanley O'Loughlin, of St. Vincent's Hospital, said Mr. Brophy was his patient en the night of the shooting. Mr. Brophy [old him he had been shot and the doctor gained the impression that it had occurred while he was on duly. Next day Mr. Brophy asked the doctor to keep Press men away.

Dr. O'Loughlin added that Sir Thoma Blarney, chief commissioner, also as! >:d him to keep the Press away from Mr. Brophy, as he wanted to prepare an official statement for release to the Press. Dr. A. Carroll, medical superintendent at 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. lie went there with a friend and two masked men fired at him. . Douglas Gillison, a reporter on the Argus, when shown a slip of paper relating to Mr. Brophy's case, declared it was certainly not the one placed before reporters by Detective Sloan. He and other reporters asked whether detectives were engaged on the affair to which Sir Thomas Blarney replied: "What can we do? The men were masked and a torch was flashed in Mr. Brophy's face." Sir Thomas also said he did not know where the first Press statement about Mr. Brophy had originated. The inquiry was adjourned.