Lingering Doubts - 68 years ago - Guilty! - Part 8

Tuesday 11 March, 1947

Today our grandfather's (and his family's) worst nightmare came true when the jury returned a guilty verdict. Reg Brown was given a life sentence to be served in Boggo Road Gaol. Minutes earlier from the holding cell below the Supreme Court he had told a reporter:

Well, the verdict could not be guilty. You see, I am not guilty. I didn't kill that girl. There can only be one verdict. I will be free in a few minutes.

It was reported our grandfather, whose physical appearance had deteriorated dramatically since his arrest only 8 weeks earlier, struggled to his feet and stumbled from the dock. Reg Brown, family man and accountant, was returned to Boggo Road Gaol but this time to the 'lifers'  block.

One year ago on this very day, exactly 68 years after the event, we were presented with new and important evidence. This evidence supports our grandfather's claims of innocence, and shows just how criminal the all-powerful investigating police were in their pursuit of a conviction.
New evidence: a visitor to the Wallace Bishop Arcade heard a scream that Friday afternoon 10 Jan 1947.  When she queried the scream, this visitor was told, by the Arcade librarian, that the screams had been going on all afternoon; the librarian supposed the rehearsals were taking place across the passageway.

There was never a mention of these rehearsals, instead police said the screams had come from Bronia Armstrong when she was attacked by our grandfather in his office during business hours.

At the trial, Crown witnesses reported hearing screams, ranging in number from 2 to 100. The only person to speak of rehearsals was our grandfather when he was responding to police questioning. Within 9 days of his sentence being handed down he was dead.
Deb and Jan