Mother Says Dying Son Admitted Killing
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday May 25, 1987
MELBOURNE: A woman told a Supreme Court jury yesterday that her son, and not a man charged with murder, had shot a man whose legless body was found in a barrel in the Yarra.
Mrs Kathleen Pettingill said that her son, Dennis Bruce Allen, had confessed to the shooting before his death from a rare heart disease last month.
On March 3 last year, the body of Anthony John Kenny, 35, of Noble Park, was dragged from the Yarra River at Kew. Peter Ian Robertson, 30, of Tennyson Avenue, Preston, has pleaded not guilty to Mr Kenny's murder.
The Crown has alleged that following an argument in a Richmond house in 1985, Robertson shot Mr Kenny.
Mr Kenny's legs were severed at the knees and his body was placed in a 44-gallon drum which was then sealed with cement.
Mrs Pettingill told the court yesterday that Mr Kenny had come to her brothel on November 7, 1985, her son's birthday. She said he had been on his way to her son's house in Cubitt Street, Richmond. The next day, she said, her son had telephoned and she had gone to his house.
She had walked down the passage and seen Mr Kenny lying on his back near the fridge. Her son was there, as was Robertson, who was upset and shaking. Mrs Pettingill said her son asked her to take Mr Kenny to hospital but she refused.
She said she had later asked Robertson: "Who shot Anton?"
"He said, 'I did'," Mrs Pettingill told the court. "I said, 'Where's the gun?' He gave it to me."
Under cross-examination by Mr Ian Hayden, for Robertson, Mrs Pettingill said she now believed that her son, and not Mr Robertson, had shot Mr Kenny. Asked why, she said: "Because my son confessed to me ... that he shot Anton."
After the cross-examination was completed, the jury foreman stood up and said the jury wanted to know if Mrs Pettingill had sincerely believed her son's confession. She replied: "I did."
Mrs Pettingill said her son had gone to hospital after suffering a stroke in January. She said she had seen him in St Vincent's Hospital two days before his death last month. He had placed $100 on the races, and was watching television.
"As I went to go, he said to me, 'I'm going, I'm gone'. Then he said, 'I have to tell you. I shot Anton'," Mrs Pettingill said.
The trial before Mr Justice Murray continues.
© 1987 Sydney Morning Herald