by Linda Venn
Click here for a list of key characters in this story
Continuing the evidence given by Constable O’Brien, Tuesday 29th December
After Rynne came Constable Leonard Edward O’Brien, whose evidence regarding the actual hold-up we have already heard in Part Four. We pick up O’Brien’s testimony from the arrival of police reinforcements late on Wednesday afternoon, 9th December. Following a conversation with Gooch, O’Brien searched the surroundings, including the horse tracks in the gully “pointed out to him by Senior Detective Sergeant O’Driscoll.” O’Brien then returned to Mt Spec, where he overnighted.
Thursday morning, O’Brien went to Rollingstone and had a conversation with the three detectives, O’Driscoll, Gooch and Raetz. O’Brien then guided the police party to Edmonds’ hut at Ollera Gorge. When they arrived at Edmonds’, Edmonds shook hands with O’Brien and said, “Well, Len, you had a bit of bad luck yesterday, but you came out of it alright.” O’Brien replied, “Yes, but I was lucky.” Edmonds asked O’Brien “if they wanted any assistance or horses.” Edmonds had given Murray, one of the local volunteers, a message for O’Brien the afternoon before offering these, but O’Brien never received any such message.
Leaving Edmonds’ hut, the party proceeded to the scene of the hold-up, taking Edmonds with them. There followed a bit of “he said/ she said” kind of argument. Gooch informed Edmonds that O’Brien had identified him as the bandit; Edmonds replied that O’Brien was making a mistake; O’Brien said he had recognised Edmonds as he was running away. Edmonds “again said witness [O’Brien] was making a mistake, adding that he would not shoot a cobber.” [Author’s note: What was the existing relationship between O’Brien and Edmonds? O’Brien had known Edmonds for many years, but in what capacity. Why was he being called a ‘cobber’?] Then came “the dress rehearsal” so disparaged by Roberts. Edmonds put on the hat and coat while O’Brien and Gooch stood where O’Brien had been when he saw the bandit running away. O’Brien then “walked over to the defendant and told him he was making no mistake and the defendant was the man, and the latter replied he would not come at it for a few paltry pounds.” As they were leaving, Edmonds said, “Here goes the bushranger” and claimed “he would get out of it”. Edmonds even tried to get O’Brien to take a bet on his acquittal, offering to buy them both “a ticket in Tattersalls”, but O’Brien declined. Gooch then took Edmonds to Rollingstone and O’Brien returned to Mt. Spec to examine the utility truck.
On examining the ute, O’Brien could see where shot had hit both the hood and the mudguard. Mr. McClelland [Main Roads Overseer], handed O’Brien “some pellets and a tube of the car…the latter had a hole in it.” O’Brien “recognised a handkerchief produced as similar to that worn by defendant.” When O’Brien saw Edmonds the next day, Edmonds asked O’Brien to deliver a message to Gill, “to the effect that when Gill got to Townsville to go and see his father, and tell him he had been taken in on suspicion of holding-up the Mt. Spec pay, and that he had not been arrested.” Gill, Searle and “a half-caste” named Jimmy Tier had all been at Edmonds’ hut when the police arrived there. O’Brien had further conversations with Edmonds at Rollingstone, “during which defendant [Edmonds] told witness [O’Brien] he did not bear him any malice, and was satisfied he [O’Brien] was making an honest mistake,” to which O’Brien again disagreed. Edmonds “stated he had nothing to tell him [O’Brien] to prove his innocence.”
Roberts then began a vigorous cross-examination of O’Brien, upon whose identification of Edmonds the prosecution case rested. As only O’Brien’s responses are recorded in the Bulletin report, we can only surmise the text of Roberts’ questions, but there were many, and Roberts was persistent in putting his question to O’Brien. Rather than trying to summarise the line of questioning, I have included extracts below from the court report from the Townsville Daily Bulletin, Wednesday 30th December 1931, page 11. The level of detail included in the court report confirms the level of public interest in this case. This report will be analysed in the next instalment. Police Prosecutor Blackmore either had little to ask of O’Brien, or the reporter neglected to include much of his cross-examination, for the column-inches given to Blackmore were miniscule in comparison. Blackmore merely established that “it was in consequence of what he [O’Brien] had told Detective Gooch that the police party went to defendant’s hut.” Once again, public holidays intervened. Edmonds’ bail was further extended and the case was adjourned to “Monday next, January 4th, at 11:30 a.m.”
