John Trevor “Jack” Kelly was found guilty of kidnapping on 23rd September 1937, and was sentenced to eighteen months’ imprisonment, with a recommendation that he undergo observation following concerns about lasting effects from a motor accident.
Released in November 1938, Kelly committed murder less than three months later. He stood trial before the same judge who had sentenced him for kidnapping, but this time he was sentenced to death, becoming the last prisoner executed in New South Wales.
John Trevor Kelly, 24, was hanged at Long Bay Gaol near Botany Bay, Sydney, shortly after eight in the morning of 24 August 1939. He had been convicted of the axe murder of Marjorie Constance Sommerlad at Hillcrest farm near Tenterfield, where he had been working alongside her and her brother Eric. During the attack, Kelly also struck Eric Sommerlad with the same axe, though Eric survived. Appeals to the Court of Criminal Appeals and the High Court both failed.
Kelly became the last person judicially executed in New South Wales. His father, a well-known figure in Lismore and northern New South Wales, mounted a public appeal arguing that other killers had received commuted sentences, and that his son had no control of himself when drinking. Authorities refused to intervene.
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