BOY'S DEATH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 73, 28 March 1933, Page 3

BOY'S DEATH.

MENTAL DEPRESSION. QUARREL IN HOME. COMMENTS BY CORONER. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) ROTORUA, thie day. The inquest into the death, on February 13, of Patrick Bourke Berghan, a High School boy, who wae found shot in the lavatory of his home, was resumed to-day. The evidence went to show that the boy was inclined to exaggerate the importance of things, and was rather sensitive. A brother, Trevor Berghan, said they lived happily at home, and his brother, so far ae he knew, had no worry. Evidence was given that on the evening of the boy's death hie mother and stepfather had a quarrel, in which the boy interfered. The stepfather resented his interference. Tho coroner, Mr. S. L. Paterson, S.M., returned a verdict that death was due to a gunshot wound, self-inllicted. He said it appeared to him that this mental depression was aggravated by a rather serious dieturbanco between the mother and stepfather earlier in the evening. He was not satisfied with the stepfather's account of the quarrel, as it was apparent from the evidence that it was of a very serious nature. Things were said which should never have been said by a husband to a wife, and they affected the mental depression of the boy, more especially as a doctor had said the boy had been "off colour" for a few days.