Chemical Made Son Kill His Mother

Chronicle (Levin), 14 December 1949, Page 5

Chemical Made Son Kill His Mother

LONDON, Dee. 12. - A young man, said to have savagely Uttaeked aud killed his mother while under the influence of an industrial ehemical, tricholorethlyene, was todav sent to prison for five years for manslaughter. Only one previous case of this addie tion has been known in Britain and two in America. The chemical Was used at a powef station neaf Birm higham where Peter Edwin Whillier, aged 26, vvorked. hlen used it for cleaning their hands, and he forined the habit of soaldng his handkerchief in it and sniffing it. The prosechtion at the Birmingham Assizes said th'at Whillier, though de- ; voted to his mother, made a savage I attack 'on her after retUrning from ' work. H(e was taken to llospital where he was so violent that he had to be str'apped to the bed, shouting: "1 have killed my mother. Fetch the police." On her way 'to the hospital his j mother said: "Peter did it, but he is I very ill." She died of a fractUred skuil. The prosecuting counsel said the' chemical was widely used industrially, ! and there was no reason to believe it aangerous, escept in the wTay Whillier had taken it.