Ray

DETAILS OF DEATH

About 2.47 pm Sunday 3 May 1964 First Constable Denman received a telephone call from Aileen Wilkinson of Knox Street Numurkah. She complained that her boyfriend Kim Christian was armed with a shot gun and beating on the back door of her home. Denman attended almost immediately. He ran to the rear of the house and approached Christian whose firearm discharged fatally wounding the Constable. Christian later claimed he had not known that Denman was behind him. He said he had felt something touch his shoulder and had moved backwards at which time the gun accidentally discharged. It was only then that he saw that the policeman had been shot and he immediately went to the local police station and reported the death. Despite his protestations of innocence he was charged with the Constable’s murder. Later presented at the Shepparton Supreme Court on a charge of manslaughter he was acquitted after a four day trial.