GIRL'S DEATH.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20214, 17 April 1931, Page 5

GIRL'S DEATH.

MAGISTRATE'S STRONG ', ; COMMENT. V EVIDENCE AT INQUEST. " This girl has been nothing more or less than deliberately done to death, and it is a very sad thing that someone cannot be brought to book for the outrage," stated Mr E. D, Mosley, S.xM., in delivering his verdict at the conclusion of the inquest into the death of Queenie Dorothy Elizabeth Burley,- a domestic servant, aged 15, who died at . the Christchurch Hospital on Saturday. March 21st, following an illegal operation. The Magibtrate also commented on the nature of the evidence given by most of the witnesses. Most of these had told deliberate untruths, ho said. The hearing of the evidence lasted through part of the morning session of the Court until after live o'clock in the afternoon. ' ~ Chief-Detective J. Carroll appeared for the police and Mr D. W. Russell for one' of the witnesses, Helen Williamson, and ■ Mr F. D. Sargent for two others, Charles Seymour Trillo and Lynton Clarence Harker. Dr. Arthur B. Pearson, pathologist at the Christchurch Public Hospital, said that on March 23rd, at the request of the Coroner, he had performed a post-mortem examination on the body of the dead girl, and had sent the results in writing to the Coroner. Certain Injuries which the girl had suffered, he told Mr Sargent, could not, in his opinion,. have been self-inflicted. Witnesses who gave evidence were Hazel Elizabeth Johanna Flannery, a domestic, aged 19; Joan Alexandria Lawson, a domestic, aged 20; Helen Williamson, single, a dressmaker, living at 292 Hereford street; Lynton Clarence HaTker, a taxi-driver, employed by the Gold Band Taxis; and Charles Seymour Trillo. aged 19, employed as clerk by the Gold Band Taxis. The evidence generally concerned the girl's movements before her admission to hospital. On Tuesday, March 17th; the witness.' Williamson, according to her evidence, met the girl and took her to the house where she stayed in Hereford street; She stayed there until the following Friday, when she went to spend the week-end ata On the -following day* she was taken to the Hospital, where she died the same evening. Harker drove the taxi in which she went to the ■'bach>" and in which' she was taken to the Hospital. The witness, Trillo, told of a visit to the "bach'' with the girl on March ISth. When aßked /whether he knew who performed an illegal operation on the, girl i he declined to answer, on. the ground that his answer might incriminate him. Witness, also naid. he could not say who was responsible for tho girl being in a certain condition.

. " Coroner's Verdict. j '' Detective-Sergeant O'Brien lias done j everything to find the person ro^pon-j sible for this, very bad outrage," said Mr Mosley, who returned a verdict that the girl, Queenie Dorothy Elizabeth Burley, died at the OhTistchurch Hospital on March 22nd, 1931, as the result of an illegal operation performed by some person upknown, "The girl has been nothing more or less than deliberately done, to death," stated Mr Mosley. "However weak she i may havo been, she. was only a girl, j and it is a terrible thing that her , should have been, taken ad- i -vantage, of in this way. - " , ''Most of ~ the witnesses before , the Court have told deliberate untruths. One' or, two have sought to give their evidence as well as they thought advisablo" in the circumstances, but evidently they have failed deliberately to tell;, tlie whole truth. .That applies both *o the men who gave evidence, and to some of the women witnesses.' ;Thay' hare not assisted the cause of justice one iota, and if their consciences do .not prick them, they are not worth mpch.''