SUICIDE IN PRISON
MAN’S DEATH WHILE ON REMAND (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, September 23. An inquest was held today into the death of William Alexander Don, a Masterton school master, who while waiting to face charges of indecent assault was found hanging by his neck in a cell at Mount Crawford Prison. After the Coroner (Mr W. G. Mellish) had heard the evidence of prison officials, Mr F. D. O’Flynn, who appeared for Don’s relatives, asked that publication of the evidence be prohibited.
The Coroner said that as more than one newspaper had given full publicity to all that had happened, he thought the inquest should be fully publicised. Otherwise, injustice might be done to the prison’s officers. “Accordingly, I find that Don died on September 15, at Mount Crawford Prison, and that the cause of death was suicide by strangulation,” the Coroner said. “I consider the routine of the prison properly carried out, and that there was no suggestion of laxity. One prisoner on remand must be treated as any other, regardless of the charges against him.”
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume XC, Issue 27463, 24 September 1954, Page 7
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179SUICIDE IN PRISON Press, Volume XC, Issue 27463, 24 September 1954, Page 7
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