SORDID STORY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 December 1942, Page 3

SORDID STORY

WOMAN’S DEATH. FALL FROM FIRE ESCAPE.. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. “The evidence discloses a rather sordid story. This woman was old enough and had responsibilities enough to know better than to choose to go on an expedition with young servicemen,” said the coroner, Mr W. G. Mellish, at the inquest in Wellington yesterday into the death of Ivy Muriel Stewart, a married woman, aged 33, whose husband was overseas, who, on the night of December 9, ' fell five stories from the fire escape of Lloyd’s Hotel, Cuba Street. “However, this is not a court of morals,” continued Mr Mellish. “What she did she did of her own free will, and if she chose to go and indulge in a drinking bout, what happenedishe brought on herself.” It appeared, he said, that the woman was endeavouring to escape from the hotel by the same means by which she entered it. She was evidently in a highly intoxicated condition. She walked about 20 feet along the platform of the fire-escape, which was cut away to allow access to the ladder. In the dark and in her intoxicated condition she probably failed to realise that there was a gap and stepped into space, falling five stories to the ground. There was no evidence that she had any injuries other than those suffered in the fall. The verdict was' that death was caused by fractures of the pelvic bones and multiple internal injuries resulting from the fall.