next sitting of the court. At the following Quarter Sessions in Lismore in August 1937, Kelly failed to appear to answer the charges. A warrant was issued for his arrest. Kelly subsequently appeared before Judge Sheridan and was remanded without bail to answer the charges at the Lismore sittings of the Supreme Court in September. On 23 September 1937, Kelly was found guilty of abduction and not guilty of the second charge of carnal knowledge. Kelly's defence counsel claimed that his client's "irresponsible tendencies" had only developed after his motor accident in 1934 and "it might possibly benefit him if he were placed under medical observation". The following day, a sentence of 18 months' imprisonment was imposed on Kelly by Justice Halse Rogers. The judge recommended that he serve the sentence on a prison farm and that the prisoner "be placed under medical observation to ascertain if the injuries he sustained in a motor accident some time ago had had any permanent mental effect". Jack Kelly's mother had begun to develop mental problems. Prior to 1939, she was admitted to the Broughton Hall Psychiatric Clinic at Callan Park in Sydney's Inner West, "definitely out of her mind". Murder During his incarceration, towards the end of 1937, Kelly received treatment at Long Bay Penitentiary in Sydney for a "venereal disorder". Kelly was released from the prison farm in November 1938. He worked for Stanley Huckerby of Tenterfield from 29 December 1938 until 9 January 1939. Soon afterwards, 'Jack' Kelly was employed by Eric Sommerlad to work on 'Hillcrest' farm, a dairy and orchard farm four-and-a-half miles (7.2 km) from Tenterfield on the Warwick Road. It was later reported that Eric considered Kelly to be "a good worker on the farm, and easy to get on with". During his employment at 'Hillcrest', Kelly had his meals at the house and slept on the verandah. On Saturday morning, 4 February 1939, Miss Dulcie Sommerlad discovered the body of her 35-year-old sister, Marjorie Constance Sommerlad (known to the family as 'Connie'), at her home at 'Hillcrest'. Miss Sommerlad's body, dressed in her night attire, was lying in the hallway near the entrance to her bedroom, "her head fearfully battered". Dulcie Sommerlad then discovered her brother Eric unconscious in his bed on the verandah; he was bleeding from wounds in his head and neck, including "a deep gash in the back of his head". Dulcie