QUEER MURDER CHARGE

Hokitika Guardian, 2 May 1928, Page 4

QUEER MURDER CHARGE

A .MIDNIGHT VISITOR

SYDNEY, April 10, ■Extraordinary circumstances surround the charge of murder which lias been preferred against Walter Henry Avery, of Hedfern, Sydney. The dead man and the man who has been charged appear to have been unknown . to each other; the man now charged reported the facts to the police himself ; . reports concerning both men are that they were (piict. oven-tempered citizens; and. finally, there is a suggestion that the whole affair may have been the result of a mistake. At 11.30 p.ni. last Saturday night Avery walked into the Redfern police , station and told the officer in charge . that half an hour earlier be had been . awakened by a rattling on his front ! door. He called out. “Who’s there? ” . and not receiving any reply he went down to investigate. He switched on the electric light in the front downstairs room and opened the door partly. Almost on the instant he received a heavy Idow nil the left eye, whether from the door being pushed suddenly , against him, or from a fist, he was unable to say. At the same time, be thought, that the stranger who pushed in the half-open door had struck him. Retaliating promptly. Avery struck lawk, al the same time closing the ' iluor on the man who was trying to 1 >m-!i it will.- i.|ieo. Tito visitor fell back on the ••tone paving of file verandah and lay there unconscious. Not a word was spoken by either man. Mrs Avery then came downstairs, and cornu nod with her husband s decision to inform the police. Avery re- , turned with the police, and the

stranger, afterwards identified as Janies Taylor, of Rockdale, was conveyed to hospital, where he was admitted suffering from a wound over the left eye and from concussion. His condition gradually became worse and within a few hours he died. Avery was charged with murder—the most extraordinary charge, it is said, that ever has been preferred against any man in such circumstances. Mrs Taylor told the police that her husband was invariably sober, ami sbe was certain that lie did not know Avery. .Mrs Avery was equally certain that Avery did not know Taylor, and sbe corroborates her husband's story of bis awakening when the door rattled. The police have been unable tr. solve the mystery of laylor's death, for it seems certain that Taylor bad im reason to visit Avery’s house, and much less to assault him. The murder charge still hangs ovei Avery, but it is more than likely tine it; will lie reduced to manslaughter.