GUILTY OF MURDER.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 July 1925, Page 7

GUILTY OF MURDER.

A PATHETIC TRAGEDY. FATHER KILLS DAUGHTER. LIFE IMPRISONMENT. By Tel'graph.—Press Assn. —Copyright. Brisbane, July 9. Oliver Johnson Duck was found guilty of the murder of his daughter Olive and was sentenced to life imprisonment, with hard labour. On Tuesday night the jury in the Duck murder trial,'foreseeing that they would be locked up all night, asked to be allowed to break the monotony by attending a picture show. By permission of the judge and at the expense of the Crown the I*2 jurors, escorted by the police, occupied seats in the dress circle and witnessed a Wild West production in which most of the characters, except the hero and the heroine, were slain or wounded. In the course of the Duck - trial the police produced a confession made to them by Duck giving pathetic details of how his daughter pleaded with him not to shoot her when he pointed the revolver at. her. She screamed and refusing to be quiet he fired and shot her dead. Then he strapped the body to his saddle and rode 37 miles during the night. He buried his daughter at dawn. A cablegram from Brisbane on May 21 stated: A grim tragedy was perpetrated near Rockhampton where Oliver Johnson Duck, aged 39, is alleged to have shot his illegitimate daughter, Olive Violet Duck, aged 13. The girl had been reared by her grandmother and Duck had lately expressed his wish to claim her and put her m a convent. Accompanied by. the police, Duck showed \yhere he had hidden the revolver with: which the deed was committed.