DEATH OF CHILD AT CLIFTON

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25420, 17 February 1948, Page 6

DEATH OF CHILD AT CLIFTON

Step-Father Charged With Murder ACCUSED ALREADY IN CUSTODY Inquiries into the death of Leslie James Boswell had been advanced a further stage, under the supervision of Inspector T. E. Holmes, of the detective branch, said Mr H. Scott, Superintendent of Police, last evening. Late yesterday afternoon a warrant to apprehend William Eric Cooper on a charge of the murder of his step-son, Leslie James Boswell, aged three years and a half, at Clifton, Sumner, on the afternoon of Monday, February 9, was issued by Mr H. P. Lawry, S.M. Cooper was subsequently charged by Senior-Detective F. J. Brady and Sergeant A. Grant. He will appear in the Magistrate’s Court to-day on the charge and a remand will ~be applied for. Cooper, who is aged 43, and is described as a nurseryman, has been in custody since last week on another charge. The murder charge against Cooper follows the finding of the body of the child among scrub on a steep bank, off Clifton terrace, on Wednesday morning. The child’s head was severely injured and a blood-stained stone was found a short distance from the body. It was first reported to the police on Tuesday morning that the child, who is stated to have been taken to Sumner by his parents .on Monday afternoon, was missing. Inquiries were immediately instituted and detectives and police, with the help of residents of the Sumner district, searched the area, including the foreshore. On Tuesday evening the child’s sun hat was found in a culvert off Clifton terrace and the search was concentrated on a large patch of gorse and lupins in this area. While the search parties were cutting their way through this scrub with axes and slashers, Constable E. Dwen discovered the body of the boy, lying face downwards close to a fence which runs through the scrub. A trail of blood extended from a few feet below the level of the road to where the body was found.