CORONER’S INQUEST.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4845, 2 October 1876, Page 3

CORONER’S INQUEST.

An inquest was held on Saturday afternoon at the morgue, before Dr. Johnston, coroner, on the body of the child found dead near the Karori-road. The jury were sworn-in, and then proceeded in the usual-course to view the body. Dr. Bradford, who had made an examination of the body, described it as that of a female child fully developed. Externally the body was well nourished. He could detect no marks of violence.' The head and face and the skin of the abdomen were considerably decomposed. The organs were healthy. The child had lived at least twenty-four hours, and appeared to have been dead at least two or three days before it was found. The body was naked, but wrapped in a sheet of brown paper. The navel cord was ligatured with thick strong crotchet cotton. The ligature, as also the cord itself, had been severed by some cutting instrument. The cord was shrivelled and dried, this extending beyond the ligature, and the natural process of shedding the cord had commenced. The ligature was well tied, and in such a manner as would be done by a qualified person. The brain and its membranes were healthy, and the lungs were fully expanded, proving that the child had been born alive. He tested the lungs by floating them in water, both wholly and in part. The heart was healthy. In his opinion death had been caused jjy exposure and neglect of the attention due to an infant. Other evidence was given by Mr. and Mrs. Lesaingtdn and James Lessingtom Their statements were simply as to the finding of the child in a kit on the roadside, and nothing was disclosed that could lead to or suggest a knowledge of the parents of the child. ' The verdict of the jury was that the child had been wilfully murdered by some person unknown.