SYDNEY HORROR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 833, 30 April 1910, Page 3

SYDNEY HORROR.

Sydney, April 27

An inquest has been opened on the child Phillips, so brutally murdered at Willoughby, a suburb of Sydney. Strong public interest has been evinced in the case.

The evidence showed that the family lived in great poverty. On the night the child was killed the children went to bed foodless. The medical evidence showed that the child, who was eight years old, was probably rendered unconscious by a blow; then the jugular vein was severed. The doctor detailed other horrifying injuries.

One witness stated that she heard the three-year-old sister of the deceased (whose name was “ Wickie ”) prattling to herself: “ Poor Wickie ; daddie beat Wickie with bottle.”

The child, upon being asked where Wickie was, replied: “ Daddy take her up the bush.” The case was adjourned. DETAILS OF THE CASE. The latest files from Sydney, give details regarding the terrible murder of the girl Phillips. The Sydney Daily Telegraph states that on Sunday, the 18th instant, it was reported to the police that a little girl, Florence May Phillips, aged eight years, was missing from her home at Willoughby. On the following day, Monday, April 19th, her body was found buried in the hush near Middle Harbour. Her throat was cut, and the head almost severed from the body. There was a mark on the head as though she had been struck by some blunt and heavy object. Medical evidence also showed that the girl had been outraged. The child was the daughter of William Phillips, a labourer, who lived with his wife in a small hut iu the lonely part of the bush, overlooking Middle Harbour. On Saturday afternoon Mrs Phillips, who is a small, delicate woman, met her husband in Sydney by appointment to get some money from him. She left the children iu charge of a young, woman, Jenny Tomlin. Phillips came home about midnight on Saturday, and at about 1 o’clock on Sunday morning he called at the house of Mr John Bundy, in Edinburgh Road, which is not far from where he lived, and asked was Mrs Phillips there, and was anything known of what had become of “ Wickie,” his daughter.

Phillips went back to his house about 2 o’clock. Next day Mrs Bundy communicated with Mrs Phillips, who said that she had not seen the girl since Saturday. The police were then informed, and a search party spent Sunday afternoon and Monday searching through the gullies and dragging the water holes, which were full after the heavy rain.

On Monday afternoon Mr Harry Ward, a gardener, told the police of a place he had noticed in the bush, whilst gathering honeysuckle combs. The ground was disturbed, and it had seemed to him that someone might have buried a dog there. He led the search party to the place, which was on a hillside covered thickly with scrub.

The constables dug up the earth, and about two feet below the surface found the child’s body, fully dressed, lying on its side. William Phillips, the father, who calmly smoked a cigarette while the body was being dug up, and did not appear the least upset, was afterwards arrested and chaiged with the murder of his daughter, Mrs Phillips said she went to Sydney on Saturday, and her husband gave her some money. Afterwards, Phillips went to hotels, where he had a number of drinks, and incidentally visited a shop in the Haymarket, where he wanted to buy a revolver, but the shopman refused to serve him. Mrs Phillips remained with her husband till after nightfall, trying to persuade him to go home. She at length saw that she could not influence him, and left him to go to her sister’s place at Newtown. Jenny Tomlin, the young woman who was left in charge of the children, owing to grief could not make a coherent statement, but it is understood that something happened at the hut late on Saturday night which caused her to run away through the bush to a neighbour’s house. Colour is lent to this belief by the report of a man living in the neighbourhood, who stated that late on Saturday night he heard a woman’s voice cry out.