Northern Standard (Darwin, NT : 1921 - 1955), Tuesday 19 August 1930, page 1


THE PALM ISLAND MURDERS

PRYOR AND HOFFMAN

DISCHARGED

SHOOTING OF CURRY

JUSTIFIED

Townsville, Monday.

Saying that the prosecution should never have been launched, Judge Douglas in the Supreme Court directed the Crown Prosecutor to withdraw the charge of murder against Peter Pryor, an aborigine, and Thomas Hoffmann, assistant superintendent at Palm Island Aborigine Settlement. They

were charged with the murder in

February of Robert Henry Curry, superintendent of the settlement. The Crown Prosecutor told the jury how Curry, after killing his two children and setting fire to the house, wounded Doctor and Mrs. Pattison and left in a launch. Next afternoon he was seen returning and Hoffman armed Pryor and an-other native telling them to shoot Curry when he landed. Curry was also armed. Pryor shot him when he landed. The Judge contended that the shooting was justified.