BATH IN LETHAL CHAMBER.

Shannon News, 16 May 1922, Page 4

BATH IN LETHAL CHAMBER.

NO FLUE FROM CALIFONT.

An inquest was conducted recently by Mr Ingleby Oddie regarding the death of a jockey named Robert Charles Weech, who was found dead in a bath at his mother’s house, J 4 Sister’s Avenue; Lavenderhill, Battersea. The. coroner told the jury that Weech went to his mother’s flat and said he would like a bath. He had a fall the day before while riding in a race. His mother prepared the bath, the water being heated by a geyser. Subsequently he was found in the bath dead, the evidence showing that he had died from poisoning from the fumes caused by the geyser.

The coroner stated that in 1919 he held an inquest on a young woman who had died in that very bathroom from the same cause. The gas company’s representative afterwards spoke to the owner of the property, pointing out that the bathroom was not safe, because in bathrooms geysers should be provided with flues for carrying off the 1 products of combustion. The owner apparently had not. done, anything. “It appears," added the coroner, “that- this is not a bathroom, it is a lethal chamber.” Mr J. Dickinson stated that he used to live at the 19 flat in question, and it was his wife who died in a bathroom in 1919. On several occasions he complained to Mrs Horrell, who managed the property, about the geyser being dangerous.

Mr Basil George Nichols, solicitor, said he was one of three trustees appointed under his father’s will. Mrs Horrell was another of the trustees. He spoke to Mrs Horrell about the geyser, and she said she Avould speak to the builder about it. The Coroner: It is not like repairing a broken tile in the roof; it is a question of life and death. .Why did you not take more interest in it? It seems so cold-blooded for you to leave it to another trustee. Common humanity should have dictated to you to go and see the place made safe.

Witness said he- was exceedingly sorry he did not do something himself.'

The coroner, summing up, said in spite of the fact that the poisonous geyser had killed one person those responsible had sat idly by and done nothing.

The jury returned a verdict of accidental death and added a rider “gravely censuring the owners of the property.”