Poole Slips Through
p. 22 · Read in the full issue
Bsip Murder
Case
Poole Slips Through Newspaper Barrage
Travellers from Papua-New Guinea and points east who arrived in Sydney on Wednesday morning May 2 (the plane had been delayed), were amazed to find a huge line-up of press talent plus camora-men with telephoto lenses trained on disembarking passengers.
News had got around that convicted murderer Reginald Poole had boarded the plane in custody in Honiara on May 1 and according to newspaper calculations he should therefore have arrived in Sydney on Wednesday.
However, in this event normal newspaper instinct for a sensation had got ahead of knowledge of the airways schedules. Poole did arrive at approximately the normal time —about 1 a.m. on Thursday morning. He was taken to Long Bay gaol, by CIB detectives who met the plane, and left by air the next night for the United Kingdom.
He will be committed to Broadmoor Asylum for the criminally insane. In February a Judicial Commissioner and three Assessors found Poole guilty of murdering a young Malaita boy last November and sentenced him to be hanged; in April the Court of Appeals in Suva found Poole guilty, but insane.
The native riots in BSIP which were freely predicted to follow Poole’s reprieve have not even tuated.