POLICE METHODS CRITICISED

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLI, Issue 20446, 17 June 1936, Page 9

POLICE METHODS CRITICISED

SEQUEL TO ATTACK ON OFFICIAL

POINTED QUESTIONS BY

COUNSEL

United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received June 16, 9.15 p.m.) MELBOURNE, June 16.

The Royal Commission which is inquiring into the shooting of Superintendent John Brophy, Chief of the Victorian ' Criminal Investigation Department, and the aupthenticity of police statements connected with it, continued its sitting to-day. Mr Justice Macindoe is the Royal Commissioner, and Mr L. Stretton is assisting him. Detective O’Keefe resuming his evidence said that after seeing Mrs Orr, he realised that the shooting was not accidental. Witness made no attempt to question the car driver Maher, nor Mrs Phillips. He was convinced from what Mrs Orr told him that a crime had been committed.

Pointed Question

The Royal Commiscsioner (Judge Macindoe) asked Mr Ham, K.C., where his cross-examination was leading.

Mr Ham who is appearing for “The Melbourne Herald” and “The Sun” replied: It is very necessary to find out whether the police officers had some motive for falsifying the reports handed to the press.

Judge Macindoe: Your suggestion to date is that Brophy may have been shot by an infuriated husband. Mr Ham: That’s what we are here for. Brophy was in circumstances which could be 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 with ordinary intelligence would suspect his account would be false. His # colleagues shared that suspicion and senior detectives lent themselves to the falsification of facts.

“Keep the Pressmen Away”

Frederick Millard, of West Coburgh, gave evidence that he was stopped on the way home in his car and was asked to drive Brophy to hospital. Brophy told him he had been shot at the Royal Park. Witness was under the impression the shooting was accidental. Dr. Stanley O'Loughlin, of St. Vincent's Hospital said: Brophy was Iris patient on the night of the shooting. Brophy toM him he had been shot and witness gained the impression it occurred while on duty. Next day Brophy asked witness to keep the pressmen away. Dr. O’Loughlin added that Sir Thomas Blarney also asked him to keep the Press away from Brophy, as he wanted to prepare an offciial statement for release to the Press. Dr. A. Carroll, medical superintendent of St. Vincent’s Hospital, said that Brophy told him within a quarter of an hour of his admission that he (Brophy) had received a telephone message to investigate a case in Royal Park. He went there with a friend and two masked men fired at him. “What Can We Do?” Douglas Gillison, a reporter on “The Argus,” when shown a slip of paper relating to Brophy’s case, declared that it was certainly not the one placed before the 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. Tire men were masked, and a torch was flashed on Brophy’s face." Sir Thomas also said that he did not know where the first Press statement about Brophy had originated. The Inquiry was adjourned.