PUKEKAWA MURDER

Hokitika Guardian, 15 October 1920, Page 3

PUKEKAWA MURDER

CASE AGAINST ACCUSED. (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, Oct. 14. The preliminary trial of Samuel John Thorn, charged with the murder of Sydney Seymour Eyre, at Pukekawa, on* August 24th, began at'Pukekohe today, before Mr Poynton, S.M. Mr R. P. Hunt, for the prosecution, addressing the Court, said the case was a strong circumstantial one. It would be shown that the fatal shot was fired by one who bad' an intimateJrnowledge of the house. Thorn was the only one outside' the .family having that knowledge. At the time of the murder Thorn was working on Granville’sTarm, ,S miles from Eyre’s. The horse under Thorn’s charge had peculiarly shaped shoes. Tracks discovered showed it had been ridden between the two properties on the night of August 25th. Eyre’s house contained two guns, neither of which had been fired recently. A gun in Thorn’s whare had been discharged. It took a cartridge of the same calibre as that used to kill Eyre. Thorn was the only possessor of cartridges of that particular brand within a radius of 20 miles. The night of the murder was one of two nights when Thorn had been left alone in his whare. The evidence would show that while Eyro was away, and after his return, Thorn had forced immoral relations on Mrs Eyre. Thorn had threatened Eyre’s life before witnesses. He had said to Mrs' Eyre: “Don’t you wish he was dead?” Eyre’s son had heard Thorn sneaking into their mother’s room at night. The motive suggested was revenge for being discharged from a good position, and being deprived of an opportunity for continuing the relations which were enforced on Mrs Eyre. Mrs Eyre was beginning her evidence at the adjournment. THE MURDER TRIAL. AUCKLAND, October 15. The trial of Samuel Thorne on a charge of murder was continued at Pukekoho. Doctor "VVake gave evidence that F was apparently mufrdered while a sloe by the firing of a gun close to his h--"' 7 from outside the window. Doctor C. Smith gave evidence that he found about forty pellets of shot at the base of the skull and concluded from this that it would have been fired easier by a left-handed than hv a ri" 7 ' handed man. He considered that it was impossible the shot had been firp' l from inside The room.