Failure of The Police Investigation
M’Neill contacted Sergeant Arrell at 9.15am on 27 December. Both men rode to the site where they remained for 30mins before Arrell returned to Gatton to send a telegram to the Brisbane Commissioner of police. Arrell took no notes while at the site, did not interview anyone present and made no effort to protect the site from the large number of people who had congregated. In Gatton, Arrell requested that the telegram be marked "urgent" only to be told that the police had no authority to send urgent telegrams; this was incorrect and Arrell was later criticized by a Royal Commission for not knowing he had that authority and also for waiting for the reply instead of returning immediately to the site with arrangements for the reply to be sent to him. The telegram was delivered to the Brisbane police headquarters at 12.52pm however, because it was a holiday, it was not opened until 9am the following morning (28 December).
Read more about this topic: Gatton Murders
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