A SERIOUS CHARGE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 4258, 17 July 1895, Page 5

A SERIOUS CHARGE.

In a Sydney cable referring to the arrest of two brothers named Gill for a theft of diamond jewellery, mention was made of the death of another brother after arrest. It appears that Ernest Gill, a watchmaker at Redfern, was arrested by Detectives Roche and Brown on a charge of receiving stolen property. It was alleged that while effecting his arrest the officers met with some resistance, and the deceased's brother was fined for being concerned in an assault on Roche. The deceased was remanded until sth June, when he was too ill to attend the court. He died on the Bth, and his medical attendants refusing to give a certificate an inquest was held, when Mary Jane Gill, the deceased's mother, deposed that the deceased admitted to Roche and Brown on their entering his shop that he had purchased a certain stone, whereupon Roche told him to ,put on his coat and come to the police station. The deceased was complying with the request, when his brother Percy said that he could not be taken without a warrant. Roche replied : " You want a warrant, do you ?" and seizing Ernest by the throat struck him on the lip with a stick, and subsequently on other parts of the body with his left hand. The deceased fell to the floor senseless, and Percy Gill then interfered, whereupon he was beaten and hit by Roche, while a boy, aged thirteen, who tried to pull Roche off, was kicked by him. Roche also dealt witness a blow on the mouth, breaking her artificial teeth. Roche then threw the deceased into the street and dragged him and Percy off to the police station. Witness denied that Roche was attacked by the whole family, and said that Brown was in the street while the disturbance occurred. Three doctors deposed that death was due to blood poisoning arising on the lip. The inquiry was adjourned to enable Roche to return from Melbourne, where he was then on duty.