SUSPECTED MURDER AT CHRISTCHURCH.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5330, 27 April 1878, Page 3

SUSPECTED MURDER AT CHRISTCHURCH.

(From the Lyttelton Times, April 24.) Au inquest was held at the Crown Hotel, jMoutreal-streefc, on .Monday, touching the death of the boy William Henry Benn Steele. The proceedings were conducted by Hr. Coward, coroner, and a jury. Evidence was taken as follows ;

Sarah Steele, after having received the usual caution, being sworn, said : X am the mother of the deceased child. About halfpast one o’clock on Saturday last I was in the house and went out. into the garden for a bucket of water, and when X turned round to get back I missed my son William. Ho had been sitting on a tree putting some grease on his boots. I had seen him there five or ten minutes before. When I missed him X shouted “ William,” but he did not come or answer. ' I then went out into the garden to see where ha was, and saw him holding a rail by one hand, and blood running from his bead. I went to him and took him in my arms, and his hand dropped off his head. Then I screamed that my boy was dead, and a woman from next door, Mrs. Sims, came and took the boy from me. She laid him down, and we got some bags and put them under his head, and got some water and washed his face. He could not speak. He lay there until his father and Dr. Nedwill came, which was about half an hour. Deceased’s father carried him into the house. There was no ether child or grown up person in the garden when the hoy got hurt. My daughter Elizabeth, seven years old, was outside the door of the house washing up- the dinner things. I had not said a cross word to the boy nor beat him for a fortnight. I had often had to correct him for disobedience, but I had not done so lately. When the boy wag greasing ids boots he was near the fowlhouse. When I missed my son I shouted quietly to him. The piece of iroq- produced was used in my house as a poker. I had it in my hand in the morning, and did not see it again until Mrs Baxter brought it to me at the house after the boy had been hurt. Deceased had been cleaning the fender about half-past twelve o’clock. I had left the poker in the fender in the morning. The boy’s hands were greasy when I found him—the pole he was clinging to was marked by the grease off his hands. Dr. Frankish : I made a post mortem examination of the body of William H. B. Steele this morning. I found the body well nourished. There were no marks of violence upon it, saving the wound in the head. On the left side of the head there was a wound jnst above the ear sufficiently large to admit the index finger - , and a lioie corresponding to the wound through the petrous portion of the temporal bone. ° On removing the skull cap there was no .indication of-any bruise surrounding the hole in the bone, nor was there any fracture of the skull extending from the hole itself. I then removed the skull cap and found a hole freely admitting the finger three inches_ in length, extending from a hole in the skull into the base of the right hemisphere of • the brain. I also found about two ounces of clotted blood at the base of the brain, Sticking into the brain were splinters of hone from the inner table of the skull. I then examined the organs of the chest and abdomen, and found the whole of them perfectly healthy. I saw the boy twice before he died. The first time when Dr. Nedwill was present, about ten minutes past 2 o’clock on Saturday, and the second time about half-past 4 o’clock. When X first saw him, I was taken to the place where the boy had met with the injury, and saw the iron produced, and saw a blood stain upon it about three inches from the end. An iron rod, such as that produced, would make a wound such as that the boy had in his skull. I am decidedly of opinion that the boy died from the effect of the wound in the skull. I do not think it possible that the wound could have been produced by such a piece of iron having been thrown at the boy. Elizabeth Sims, sworn, said : I live next door to Mrs! Steele. On Saturday last I was at home about ten minutes after one o’clock. Mrs. Steele came into my house and gave mo a cup of tea, and the little girl Lizzie came in and said that Willie was at the dripping that came from their grandmamma’s. Mrs. Steele went out, and the next I saw of her was in five minutes, when she came in screaming, calling to mo, saying that her boy was cut. I ran out, and took the boy from her, and held him in my arms. I saw brains and blood flowing from a wound on the left side of his head. I afterwards placed him on some sacks, and then went to look at the poker (produced), which had been picked up by some other women, and the cap as well. There was blood on the poker to the extent of three "inches from the point of the blunt end. I have lived three mouths where I do now, and I. never knew Mrs. Steele to be other than kind to her children as far as I saw.: When I saw the poker I did not notice any grease upon it. There was very little blood on the ground at the spot, but a great quantity on Mrs. Steele’s dress.

Margaret Baxter, being sworn, said : On Saturday last, about one o’clock, I was in my house, and heard Mrs. Steele cry out, “Oh, my boy is killed,” and- Lizzie Steele came for. me, saying her mother wanted me quick. I went out, and saw deceased in Mrs. Sims’ arms. The boy was bleeding very much from a wound on the side of the head. I then sent my little girl for a doctor. I have been a neighbor of Mrs. Steele's for more than a year. I have heard Mrs. Steele sometimes swear at her children, but never saw her lift anything towards them. I knew the deceased. He was a very unruly boy, and gave his mother a deal of trouble. I saw the poker picked up ; there was no grease nor earth upon it. There were a few drops of blood on the ground where the poker was lying ; the hat was close by it.; Tho evidence of Lizzie Steele threw no additional light upon the matter. The inquest was then adjourned until Friday, April 26,