GRAZIER SHOT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 226, 23 September 1940, Page 3

GRAZIER SHOT.

BULLET IN EYE. . CHARGE OF MURDER. MANUNUI SENSATION. OK COUNTRY RACECOURSE. TAUMARUNUI, this day. A sensational tragedy shocked the residents of Taumarunui yesterday afternoon, when it became known that a well-known resident, Mr. Jeremiah O'Sullivan, aged 52 years, had been shot dead at a cottage where he was living on the Taumarunui racecourse at Manunui, and that another well-known Mann niii resident had been arrested. Mr. O'Sullivan was shot by a pea-rifle bullet which entered the right eye. In the police court at Taumarunui this morning Charles Harold Longley, labourer, aged 39 years, was charged before Messrs. W. Thomas and W. A. Campbell, J.P.'s, that on September 22. at the Taumarunui racecourse, Manunui, he murdered one Jeremiah O'Sullivan.

Accused, who is a small man and wears glasses, was dressed in a neat blue suit, and he did not appear to be unduly concerned as he stood erect in the. dock when the charge was read. He was represented by Mr. L. Arnold. Police-Sergeant L. Abel, who prosecuted, asked for a remand till Tuesday of next week, and this was granted. Mr. O'Sullivan, a married man who has three sons, the youngest 15 years of age., had been living in a cottage on the racecourse, where he grazed cows. Recently he had received notice from the owners of the property, the Taumarunui Borough Council, to vacate the cottage. Being the owner of a cottage about quarter of a mile distant from the racecourse, which he had let to Mr. Longley and his family, he had given Mr. Longley notice to leave the cottage as he required it for himself.

Shortly after 4.30 p.m. yesterday, an urgent telephone call took Dr. B. Sturtevant in haste to the cottage on the racecourse, where Mr. O'Siillivan lived, and he there found that Mr. O'Sullivan was dead as the result of a .22 calibre, ballet in the head. He at once communicated with the police, and as the result of inquiries Longley was arrested by Constable G. E. Edwards and take.n to the Taumarunui lock-up. The accused man is a labourer by occupation, who is in receipt of an invalidity pension.

An inquest will be held before Mr. W Thomas this afternoon.