A MAN'S DESPAIR.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 139, 18 July 1914, Page 3

A MAN'S DESPAIR.

DYING WIFE DESCRIBES TRAGEDY

A dying woman's statement, implicating her husband, was read at an Islington (England) inquest. The enquiry was on Gertrude Lindsey, 36, who died in the- Great Northern Hospital from knife wounds. , Her husband, William Charles Lindsey, 38, was present in the custody of a police officer. *«•*.

William Lindsey, printer, father-in-law of the woman, said the couple had been married about 16 years. They had five children.

Some time ago his son received £3OO compensation for an accident which disabled his right hand, and he bought a newsagent's business in Isledon Road, Islington. He got into debt, and was terribly worried because he could not pay his. rent. At 5.30 a.m. on the previous Saturday the witness heard a scream. He ran to his son's bedroom and saw him standing by the bed. Seeing blood-stains, he turned to run to the front door. His daughter-in-law passed him on the stairs and collapsed in the passage. The Wife's Statement. The father mentioned that he lost sight of his son for 16 years, and only rediscovered him by accident in looking through a printer's book and finding his name there about a year ago. Since then he had been living with the couple. A police officer submitted a statement made by the woman in hospital shortly before she died. It ran:—

" 1,-Gertrude Lindsey, having the fear of death upon me, make , this statement. .About 5.30 this morning my husband got up. I was awake. He Went downstairs, and I went, asleep. "Then I heard.him making a noise. I looked up and saw him with a knife mat-, ing for my heart. He said: 'We have all got to die,' and he fought me with the knife.

"I fought with him. I went downstairs, and I fell down in the. passage, where I was lying for a long time.'' The was present when the woman made this statement) said the witness. She. was very exhausted, and her voice was almost gone.

Lindsey showed emotion when liis wife's last words were read •to the Coroner. ; " . ' ■ •. ■ •" ,/ ■ . >-■;

A police'constable, who) was called upon for -help sftid he fouiid the woman'lying in the passage., She > said " Qui<Sk l Do something for me. .X am dying,'' and, pointing, upstairs/ she .added the words, " The children. " - "Ilverytirtng.Seeined Hopeless.'' The witness heardthe screams of children, upstairSj found the hus- ' band in a-bedroom holding a knife. He had cut .Jbis throat. He said: "I am dene. It „is not - sharp enough. I meant: -to do the. lot.-in. : I have only 27/- in the werld,-and"vthe brokers aTe coming in 'to-day." ■. Giving evidence on oath, the husband said that for some months past he had fceenj so worried by tfye business that he had not known what he was doing. "My domestic, life was comfortable, enough, and she was a good wife, but lately the moneylenders have beenbotbiering me. ■

Xf On Friday the, brokers m, and I £5, and \s9metimes I was so worried that I felt, like running out of the. shop shrieking., • _ . ' '' Whe£ I %,ent ,tO" bed that night- everything seemed so hopeless that I said to myself, 'Why not finish.it off?' becduse I did not like the thought of my family going to the workhouse. - , '' IvcouH' not* sleep at all, and I - got •oirtH-o. ''wife • ifty was aching. Then I -saw a knife onr. the rtable, and,, looking &t; my f?ife on the bed," I made and screamed, and I 'do "fnot = remember anything "more.". , ; of. I' wilful murder \ } .. was returned again&fc the husband. ■ \