SHARK ARM CASE

Taranaki Daily News, 11 September 1935, Page 5

SHARK ARM CASE

ACQUITTAL OF BRADY SUDDEN ENDING OF TRIAL ONLY CROWN CASE HEARD JUDGE DIRECTS THE JURY ARREST ON NEW CHARGE By Telegraph—Press Assn—Copyright. Rec. 10.20 p.m. Sydney, Sept. 10. _ Patrick Brady, charged with the murder of James Smith at Sydney (the shark arm case), was acquitted by the Supreme Court to-day. At the close of the Crown case the Chief Justice of New South Wales, the Hon. F. R. Jordan directed the jury to acquit Brady. Brady’s counsel, Mr. Evatt, had submitted that the Crown was in no better position than at the opening of the prosecutor’s case yesterday. The Crown Prosecutor, Mr. McKean, directed the judge’s attention to certain aspects of the evidence and to the statement alleged to have been made by Brady to detectives which the court had admitted. “No doubt there is plenty of matter for suspicion in the evidence but the clear opinion I formed is that upon certain principles a conviction upon that evidence cannot be allowed to stand, said His Honour. Brady left the court in the company of his counsel. REARRESTED OUTSIDE COURT. Brady was re-arrested outside the court on a provisional warrant allegedly for having failed to answer a charge for forgery at Hobart, Tasmania. When the murder trial was continued this morning Mrs. Holmes, widow of Reginald Holmes, said that one day early in April Brady came to her home He was dirty and unshaven, and had blood on one of his hands. He came to see her husband. ' . _ _ That night Brady returned carrying a bag similar to one she had seen carried by Smith. She had never discussed the Smith murder with Brady, she said. William Andrews, taxi-driver, said that he drove Brady from McMahon’s Point to Cronulla about 8.40 a.m. on April 9. During the journey Brady told him that he had been out to get a boat at 4 a.m. that day and had travelled from Cronulla to the city by car at 6 a.m. Herbert McGowan, taxi-driver, said he was engaged on April 10 by Brady, who was carrying a small brown kitbag, Lney visited various shops, Brady purchasing a mattress and a tin trunk. Brady was then driven to the cottage Cored Joy at Cronulla, where the purchases were left.