VIOLENT CRIMES IN AUSTRALIA.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18545, 16 April 1930, Page 9

VIOLENT CRIMES IN AUSTRALIA.

Surrey Hills Murder. CASE ENVELOPED IN MYSTERY. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright ) (Received April 15, 10.24 p.m.) SYDNEY, April 15. Three men, arrested on a charge of house breaking when John Prendergast was fatally shot, were to-day acquitted. Mrs Barry, the central figure in this case, stated that the three accu.sed were not present when Prendergast was killed.

[The police received information on March 27 that a shop at Surrey Hills was being raided. They went there and found John Prendergast. aged 23. dying in the yard. The man succumbed an hour later in hospital from the effects of a bullet wound in the body. Mrs Kathleen Barry, owner of the shop, was arrested and charged with murder, and three men were captured by the police and charged with breaking and entering. The shooting of Prendergast is enveloped in mystery. No motive has been ascribed for the raid on the shop.]

OLD MAN KILLED. BATTERED TO DEATH IN PADDOCK. United Press Association--B; Kectrl" r : elegrapti—- Copyright.) (Received April 15, 10.45 p.m.) SYDNEY, April 15. James Charles, aged seventy-nine, was discovered dead in a paddock in the Windsor district, with his head terribly battered. The body was covered with a neatly folded bag. The police and doctors are of opinion that this is a case of murder. Cecil Charles, aged fifty-three, who lives in a hut near the scene, informed the police tha.. his father had been missing since yesterday afternoon. He can furnish no motive for the murder.