FATAL STABBING CASE.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 960, 24 July 1877, Page 2

FATAL STABBING CASE.

THE INQUEST. The following evidence was given after we went to press last night: — Donald Campbell deposed to making a pout mortem examination of the body of deceased. He saw the deceased during his lifetime. Ho had a large wound in the left side. I asked deceased if he did it himself, and he said “No.” He appeared not to want to give any evidence. The wound had penetrated the abdominal cavity, and he was suffering from acute peritonitis. I have since, in conjunction with Dr Collins, made a postmortem examination. There was a wound exactly one inch and a quarter long below the nipple on the left side, passing through the abdomen and extending to the back. It nearly came through the man’s body. The wound was an oblique one, downwards and inwards towards the spine. It had all the character of a penetrating and incised wound. It was such a wound as would be produced by the instrument shown to me. [The turner’s tool referred to previously was here shown to the witness.] I should say that this weapon would produce the wound. I attribute the man’s death to peritonitis and shock attendant thereon, the result of the wounds I have described. By Inspector Feast—lt would not take much force for a weapon like tins to go through a man’s clothes and body. The weight of such an instrument as this would not require any great force to pass through a man’s body.

By a Juror : The direction of the wound was not such as to lead to the belief that the deceased fell on the tool. To do this, the deceased would have had to stand on his head to fall upon it to produce the indications shown by the wounds I have described. Floyd Collins —I am house surgeon at the Christchurch Hospital. The deceased was brought in a few minutes past twelve on Saturday night last. He was pale, cold, with small weak nnlse. I examined him, and found that there was an incised wound on the left side, penetrating the abdomen. [The witness here gave corroborative testimony of Dr. Campbell’s evidence as to the size and direction of the wouud.] The deceased was iu a ssate of

intoxication at the time, but not to such a degree but that he understood what was said to him. He refused utterly to give us any information as to how lie came by the wound, further than that lie had been stabbed. He did not mend, and died at 3 p.m. yesterday. [The witness then described the post mortem appearance of the body.] The cause of death was from peritonitis and shock caused by the wound in the left side. The weapon produced would indict a wound such as that described. If the weapon were held in the way of attack it might penetrate a man’s body if the person holding it fell forward against the man. _ By the Foreman —The state of intoxication in which the man was did not hasten his death. Alcohol, as a rule, acts as a stimulus against shock. I should not think that a man could have walked a hundred yards after such a wound. I have been told that he did so. The case was then adjourned, on the application of Mr Inspector Feast, until Wednesday next, at 2 p.m., at the Hospital.