BABY IN THE DOCK.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 134, 8 June 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

BABY IN THE DOCK.

FONDLED BY PRISONER

ALLEGED SUICIDE PACT

Tho spectacle of a man accused of participation "in a suicide pact, following an alleged intrigue with the dead woman, being comforted by his wife and dandling his baby in the dock, was provided at Canterbury Police Court. This homely incident touched all who saw it, because it was part of the case for the prosecution that the woman had been ousted from her rightful place as wife by her dead rival. The man was Ralph Pattison (31), a miner, of Easington, Durham, who was charged with the murder of Margaret Dawson (23), and with attempting, on the same date— March 28—to commit suicide. He pleaded not guilty.

Mr. B. Gr. Saywell, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said that Dawson also came from Durham and had been in service in London. Pattison came from Durham to Canterbury on March 25 and apparently stayed with Dawson in Best Lane, Canterbury, Pattison describing himself as "R. Potts, of Durham, married."

The following night they were seen in the district, and about 2 a.m. the next day they stood by a night watchman's fire, returning to the fire about 4.45 a.m. About 7 a.m. Pattison was found unconscious about thirty yards from a roadway and Dawson was dead in a field, not very far away. She had died from poisoning, and the man himself was suffering from poisoning.

"On March 27," added Mr. Saywell, "Pattison and Dawson collaborated in what we may term farewell letters. Dawson enclosed a note with a letter which Pattison wrote to his wife, and Pattison added a postscript to a letter which Dawson wrote. When Pattison was charged with murder, he replied:— 'I do not see I can say anything at present, , and in reply to the charge of attempted suicide, he said: 1 am guilty of that.'"

Dr. Hilda Garlick, who made a postmortem examination on the woman Dawson, said the cause of death was shock and collapse, following corrosive poisoning administered by the mout'h. The woman was in a certain condition.

Charles James Scott, a labourer, said he found Pattison lying on the pathway near an allotment.

Detective-Sergeant Port produced a statement alleged to have been made by Pattison on March 28 at Canterbury Hospital. Pattison said he left his home at Bradley Street, Easington, on the previous Monday, went to London and then to Chislet. He said: "I stayed in Canterbury on Tuesday and wrote to my wife on Wednesday night. I told her that I was clearing out with Rita Dawson and that we were both going to commit suicide. Dawson put a slip in the letter as well. I bought the poison on Tuesday. She was waiting outside. It had been thought of for a fortnight."

After the statement had been read over Pattison added: "We bought a cup specially. I poured it out. She jibbed at it, so we left the cup and bottle in the field and went back to the watchman's fire. Later we returned to the field and I said, 'Come on, kid,' and we then drank it. I remember nothing more until I came round."

Pattison, who pleaded not guilty and reserved his defence, was comimtted for trial.