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Roebourne Bank Murders

Roebourne Bank Murders

The 1885 murders of William Anketell and Henry Burrup at the Union Bank Roebourne and the ensuing investigation and controversy.

  • Home
  • Summary of Events
  • Witness accounts of murder scene
    • by F.C. Broadhurst
    • by W.M. Thomas
  • Police File
  • Depositions
  • The murder trial
  • Newspaper Articles
    • The West Australian
    • The Fremantle Herald
    • The Argus
    • The Enquirer
    • The Eastern Districts Chronicle
  • Motive and musings
    • Prejudice and rumours
    • The Motive
    • The psychology behind the murders
    • My Musings
    • Who did it?
  • Roebourne in 1885
  • Roebourne maps and photos
    • Western Australia
    • 1885 Roebourne Town Map
    • Early Maps of Roebourne Townsite
    • Roebourne and Surrounding Country
    • Early photos of Roebourne
  • Biographies
    • Thomas Anketell
    • Henry Thomas Wood Burrup
    • Frederick Bevan
    • Charles Warburton
    • James Lithgow
    • The Pontt Brothers – William and Augustus
    • Caroline Platt
  • Memoir Extracts
  • Can you help with these names?
  • Bibliography
  • Acknowledgements

Deposition – Caroline Platt

The Depositions

Deposition of Caroline Platt

The examination of Caroline Platt
wife of Frederick Platt, Builder of Roebourne
taken on oath this 12th
day of March in the year of Our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and 85 at Roebourne
in the Colony aforesaid, before the undersigned, one
of Her Majesty’s Justices of the Peace for the said Colony in the presence and
hearing of Frederick Bevan, Charles Warburton, William Holmes Gilroy and San Qui who
are charged this day before me for that they the said F. Bevan. C. Warburton
W.H. Gilroy and San Qui at Roebourne on

This deponent Caroline Platt on her oath
saith as follows:- I am the wife of Frederick Platt, Builder. I live in a cottage from which I have a full view of the Union Bank.I remember Tuesday morning the 13th January, the day of the murder. On the night of the 12th or morning of the 13th between 2 and 3 o’clock I heard footsteps which seemed to be passing up and down ? Mr Noonan’s yard. They seemed to pass the end of my house from Noonan’s to the back, and vice versa. Towards 4 o’clock or about daylight I heard the dogs barking very much and got up to call them. I went to the window. It was just break of day. I called the dogs and then whistled and they came from the direction of Osborn’s shop. I saw a man going along the bottom of the hill towards the back of Mrs Thompson’s. I saw another object going up the hill which I took to be an animal; watching it I made out that it was a man in a crawling position. He went across the hill, in the direction of the grave yard. When he got to the rise of the hill he stood upright and looked towards the town. He then disappeared. I saw also a man about 20 yards from Mrs Laws house passing up the hill towards the church. He went up to the church and stood against one of the buttresses, then he went towards the gully and then returned to the church and passed behind it and I saw him no more. I mentioned what I had seen to my husband when he woke about 6 o’clock. I also mentioned it to my brother after I had heard of the murder. I know the prisoners. That morning I saw Mr Bevan about half past 7 going across from Mr Noonan’s water closet to the bar. That was shortly before people gathered opposite the bank. I had not then heard of the murder. I saw him about 3 minutes later going across towards Osbornes shop; a minute or two after I saw him giongfrom there towards his own house, going behind Noonan’s. I had known Bevan nearly 2 years. I remember the day before yesterday. By arrangement I looked out of the same window as I looked out of on the 13 January and saw where Sergeant O’Connell went. I saw him going up the hill but not exactly where I saw the man. It was a little more to the left, perhaps 10 yards. I did not see him go to the spot where I saw the object. I saw Sergt O’Connell return. He returned more on the direction I had seen the object. It was 10 minutes or 1/4 of an hour before I saw people collecting opposite the bank that I saw Bevan in Noonan’s yard.

No x ex.

C Platt
Before me
E.H. Lawrence J.P.

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