UNIQUE CASE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 205, 30 August 1926, Page 8

UNIQUE CASE.

WOMAN'S STARTLING EVIDENCE. "HIS AWFUL ' ' (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, August 20. * Startling evidence was given in an unique case in Sydney this week, when the second inquiry was held concerning the death of William Lochfine Parker" 43, a labourer, of Goodsir Street, Rozelle* At the first inquiry, a verdict of suicide was returned, but later an appeal to the Supreme Court by the Crown resulted in the verdict being set aside, and a woman, who was chief witness at the first inquiry, was charged with murder. Parker died on May 8, the first inquiry was held on May 20, and the second opened and adjourned on June 30, because Agnes Davies, charged with mur. der, was in hospital in a serious condition. Mrs. Hazel Thompson's evidence at the resumed hearing was sensational She had known Mrs. Davies for about 12 months as Mrs. Parker, and the latter, according to witness, had complained repeatedly that Parker used to threaten her. She threatened to "do him in." "If you hear of m c doing anything like that, don't say anything," she" conn™ selled Mrs. Thompson. After Parker had been buried, proceeded witness, Mrs. Davies said she had poisoned him, saying that he deserved such a fate. Mrs. Davies told her that the night before he died, Parker asked for a dose of oil, and she then mixed strychnine with the medicine. He complained that it was bitter, but by that time he had taken it all. Parker commenced to complain of awful pains, according to Mrs. Davies' statement to witness, and asked for a cup of tea. "What have you done?" he asked Mrs. Davies, and she rented. "Nothing, Bill." v ' "You won't have mc no more after this," he added, and she could see that he was dying. He was screaming and groaning, so she closed the windows, and, telling a milkman as she went, called a nurse and telephoned for a doctor. "I asked her wasn't she sorry for what she had done," added witness. "Aren't you afraid of God punishing you?" I said, but she replied, 'No, I'm not afraid of Parker haunting mc. The only thing I see at night is the way he looked at mc with his awful eyes."' Mrs. Thompson said that Mrs. Davies boasted that she had nothing to worry about, as they would never find her out. She had planned it well, placing the strychnine under the dead man's bed. She had given him half a tin of strychnine. A statement signed by Mrs. Davies, handed to the Coroner, read as follows: "I admit having given strychnine to Mr. Parker on May 8, I done it because I was fed up of him—the way he treated me—keeping mc short of money. H« used to throw off at mc and say that the children did not belong to him, bid to other men." To allow of further evidence beii* called the inquest was adjourned agaM at that stage. °