A PATHETIC TRAGEDY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 6, 7 June 1913, Page 5

A PATHETIC TRAGEDY.

GIRL SHOOTS HER FATHER. A.STORY OF ILL-TREATMENT. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. Received 6, 9.30 p.m. Sydney, June 6. Kate Siely, aged fourteen, has been acquitted on a charge of murdering her father at Shell Harbor last March, The evidence disclosed a pathetic story of years of drunkfen ill-treatment of his wife and family by the dead man. The gun with which the fatal wound waß inflicted went off while the girl was struggling to get it from her father after threats to shoot the whole family. A Sydney cable dated June 6 says:— A young woman, Kate Siely, was arrested at Shell Harbor charged with murdering her father. When the inquest opened, Mrs., Siely gave evidence that deceased drank heavily and systematically ill-treated her daughter. On Saturday night he became so violent that she obtained police protection. On Sunday morning, after some more drinking, he struck her, and forced his daughter to give him money. He got a knife and a gun, and threatened to murder the whole family. While Kate was struggling to get the gun, it exploded and shot her father in the head. Another witness, who visited the house shortly after the tragedy, said that Mrs. Siely told him that Kate had shot her father. Kate added: "Father was going to kill mother. I did it to save her."