MURDER TRIAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 October 1920, Page 5

MURDER TRIAL.

ECHO OF EYRE TRAGEDY. EVIDENCE OF THE WIFE. ACCUSED DENIES GUILT. By 'Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. The preliminary trial of Samuel John Thorn, charged with the murder of Sydney Seymour Eyre, at Pukekawa, on August 24, began at Pukekohe to-day, 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 had an intimate knowledge of the house, and Thorn was the only one outside the family having that knowledge. At the time of the murder Thorn was working on Granville's farm, eighteen miles from Eyre's house. Thorn's horse had peculiarly shaped shoes, and tracks discovered showed it had been ridden between the two properties on the night of August 24. Eyre's house contained two guns, neither of which had been fired recentl.v- A gun in Thorn's whare had been discharged, and it took a cartridge of the same calibre as that used to'kill Eyre. Thorn was the only possesepr of cartridges of that particular brand within a radius of 21 miles. The night of the murder was one of two nights when Thorn had been left alone ia his whare.

ALLEGED THREATS. The evidence would show that while Eyre was away, and after hig return, Thorn had forced immoral relations on , 8 -, Eyre. Thorn had threatened Lyre's life, and before witnesses he had said to Mrs. Eyre, "Don't you wish he was dead." Eyre's sons had heai-3 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 the opportunity for continuing the relations which wero enforced on Mrs. Eyre. •Uillicent Eyre, widow of the deceased, stated that the property of 000 acres owned by her late husband was worth between £'15,000 and £20,000. On the night of August 24 there was nobody at the house except members of the family, and everyone was in bed about !) p.m. Her husband and Pkillip were the last to go to bed, and she saw that the front door was closed. She was awakened after having been asleep some time by the accuseds dog larking under the boys' room. This dog Bob had been taken away bv Thorn When he left the farm, but had come back by itself. The dog was barking, furiously, and she called to it to lie down, which it did after a time, and she again went off to sleep.

AWAKENED BY A SHOT. She was awakened later by the shot of a gun. Sho heard quick, heavy steps up the side of the house, apparently going towards the back gate. Sho called to her husband, but getting no answer, she struck a light, and discovered that the top of his head had been blown away. Between five and ten minutes after the boys had left the house for help she heard a horse cross a bridge below the house, apparently going away from the house. In further evidence, Airs. Eyre said the accused last visited the farm on August 24. He had often told her ho loved her, and had asked her to go and live with him. Sho admitted relations had been improper between accused and herself, and they continued after her husband returned. She could not prevent him, because he said he would "put me away to my husband, exposo me. drag my name in the gutter, and get me divorced." She *aw tho accused at the Tuakau Police Station after the murder. He asked her then what made her think he killed her husband, and she replied; "Circumstances." He asked, "What circumstances?" And she answered, "You knew the position of his bed and' everything about the house." He replied, "True as I am here, I never did it." Witness was still in the box when the case was adjourned. The murder of Mr. Eyre, a wellknown resident of the Pukekawa district, near Tuakau, on the western side of Mercer, caused a sensation in August. The victim was a married man, 45 years of age, and was a successful grazier at Pukekawa, where he lived with his wife and family. He was at one time a member of the Raglan County Council. In 1017 he was in America on a trip, and, crossing into Canada, lie joined the Canadian Highlanders, serving with them till tho end of the war.