INQUEST

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 203, 6 December 1910, Page 5

INQUEST

1 THE POLICE STATION FATALITY, j An inquest was held yesterday at the J Courthouse before Mr. H. S. Fifafherbert'/ll Coroner, on the death of John George v j Wood, who was found dead in the police J cells on Saturday morning following hftl| arrest for drunkenness on Friday night;s| E. Wilson, solicitor, New Plymouth! said he bad identified the body as it layjjj in the Morgue as that of John George 3j Wood, with whom be had transacted |l business at four o'clock on Friday after-.J,' noon. , ,$ Thomas Joseph Listen, constable, said 3 he saw deceased in Brougham street, $ where he picked him up after a fall. i| Deceased said he was staying at the periai Hotel, but when he took him up'Ji there it was found no one knew who| he was. Then he took him to the cells, and visited him at intervals until fehiree '* o'clock. ~3 Edward Whitehouse, constable, said he -| assisted k locking up the deceased, and a considered he was an ordinary inebriate, "i When visited at four o'clock, witness, J could not elicit any answer from de-';| ceased, so he struck a light, and on ex- $ animation found he was dead. Then ha :M informed Sergeant Haddrell, and later'J went for Dr. McCleland. si Dr. McCleland referred to the post $ mortem he' held on Sunday morning. The $ heart, lungs and kidneys were all in, j| order, with the liver a little enlarged, 'J He found on lifting the skull that there J was a quantity of blood about the brain, .1 there was a growth on the left side*f v a the brain, one and a half inches long, f| half an inch wide and a quarter of an J inch thick, Very, rough all round. He<j| concluded that the blow nbove the eye || had thrown the brain against the growths! and lacerated an artery, causing a com-ia pression of blood on the brain, resulting,!! practically in apoplexy, which hadjl caused death. "i| A verdict in accordance with the medi-il cal testimony was returned. -1