BOY POISONED.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 256, 29 October 1928, Page 9

BOY POISONED.

ANOTHER BOY ADMITS CRIME.

MENTAL HOSPITAL. PATIENTS.

KEY STOLEN FROM NURSES.

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent) NELSON, this day.

A boy patient in the Nelson Mental Hospital was given a drink of formalin by another boy on Saturday, and he died of the poison.

| An inquest into the circumstances of the tragedy was held yesterday before Mr. T. E. Maunsell, S.M., coroner. Dr. A. T. Jeffreys, medical superintendent, stated that he and Dr. Sadlier performed a post-mortem examination and found unmistakable evidence of poison. He interviewed the boy responsible and he admitted he had given the poison to his fellow-patient. He stated quite frankly that he did not like deceased, and that he wanted to kill him, because he considered he was "no good."

Dr. Jeffreys said he did not think the boy fully understood the nature of the offence. He was an epileptic imbecile, very untruthful, and he had very little moral sense of right and wrong. He knew the contents of the bottle were poisonous, and that they would cause the death of the other youth.

Two nurses stated the key to the basin-room where the poison was kept was in their charge. The boy took a jug of water . to. their bedroom yesterday morning. entering he apparently tip-toed across the room and took the key from a table at the bedside of one of the nurses. The door to the basin-room was always kept locked, but the boy knew what it contained and that his only chance of gaining entry was to secure the key. It was not known that he had arrived with the water until, apparently, after he had secured the key and secreted it. The'coroner found that deceased died from shock- caused through poisoning by drinking* 'formalin which was administered to him by a mental patient with intent to kill. He said the mental patient was not responsible for his actions by reason of insanity. The fact that he was able to gain access to the room in which the . formalin was kept was due to exceptional circumstances, and the unfortunate .occurrence was not caused through negligence on the part of anyone in the hospital.