MURDER AND OUTRAGE BY A BOY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2453, 19 January 1893, Page 3

MURDER AND OUTRAGE BY A BOY.

Full details are now to hand of a tragedy at Ooalbaggie, a place about twenty-five miles from Dubbo, N.S.W. A settler named Handing and his wife lived about six miles from Coalbaggio Creek, and had with them a youth named Arthur Astill, who is about sixteen years of age. This youth it appears made improper overtures to Mrs Handing some time ago, and when she mentioned the matter to her husband he laughed it off. On Sunday last he had to leave for Dubbo, and, when saying good-bye, he half jocularly asked his wife if she were afraid to stay by herself with Astill, and she said “Oh ! no; we are going fishing together.” On Monday afternoon Astill came into Coalbaggie township, and told a local publican that he had come to Handing’s house during the morning, and had found Mrs Handing lying near a water tank with a wound in her head. She was quite dead, and had a pint pot in her hand, as if she had been going to get a drink. Sub-Inspector Cameron went out and found the body as described. He also saw that death had been caused by a gunshot wound behind the right ear, which could not have been self-inflicted. After searching for some time the officer found a double-barrelled breech-loading gun in the hut occupied by Astill. One barrel had the appearance of having been recently discharged. He then crossexamined Astill, and as the youth’s answers were not altogether satisfactory he took him into custody on the charge of having murdered the woman. The post mortem examination of the victim’s body was finished late on the afternoon of 12th, and showed that the woman had been outraged before she was murdered. The deceased was thirty-five years of age and had no family.