BATHROOM DRAMA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 103, 3 May 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

BATHROOM DRAMA.

MAN DIES IN ARMS OF DETECTIVE. A man, who is alleged to have shot himself, fell dead in the arms of a detective sergeant who had gone to a house at Hatherley Grove, Paddington. In consequence of a message from the Bournemouth police, the detective went to the house to question a man whose name is given as Lancelot Holderness Gale. It is stated that Gale asked to be allowed to go to the bathroom. The detective consented and accompanied the man upstairs. Immediately he got into the bathroom, the man pulled a pistol from his pocket and shot himself, falling back into the arms of the officer and dying. The man, it is understood, was to have been questioned in connection with the alleged fraudulent conversion of a sum'of about £300.

"Watching Us."

The landlady at the house, which is partly a boardinghouse and partly given up to flats, said:—"The man came here with his wife on Friday and gave the name of Gordon. I did not know that his real name was Gale. At about 8.55 a.m. there was a knock at the door, and a man, whom I afterwards discovered to be a detective, asked if a man named Gordon lived in the house. I told him he did, and then I noticed that Gordon was on the landing watching us. "I said: 'That is Mr. Gordon there, upon which Gordon came downstairs and spoke to the officer. What they said exactly I do not know, but Gordon must have asked permission to go upstairs for a few moments. He seemed to me nervous and distraught. The officer apparently gave permission, and the nest thing I knew was the sound of a shot. Of course, I did not know what it meant, and it was not until later that I realised Gordon had shot himself." Mr. Gale was fairly well known m the Bournemouth district. He practised as a chartered accountant and had offices at Glen Fern Chambers, Bournemouth. He lived in a flat at Surrey Towers, Ipswich Road, Bournemouth. At the last sitting of the Bournemouth Bankruptcy Court he failed to appear for his public examination in bankruptcy, he having been made bankrupt on a creditors petition. The question of a warrant being issued for his arrest was discussed, but the Registrar said he understood that, in the meantime, a criminal "warrant had been issued for debtor's arrest, in which case it was unnecessary for him to issue one. The police warrant, was for fraudulent conversion. The case was adjourned to the March Court.