DOCTOR’S TRIAL

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28234, 23 March 1957, Page 11

DOCTOR’S TRIAL

Fifth Day Of Hearing

(Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, March 22. A middle-aged nurse, who has already spent more than five hours in the witness box, will continue her evidence today when the murder trial of Dr. ’ John Bodkin Adams enters its fifth day. Nurse Caroline Randall was with Mrs Edith Alice Morrell, a wealthy widow, aged 81, when she died at Eastbourne, Sussex, in November, 1950. Dr. Adams has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mrs Morrell who was cremated. Her ashes were scattered over the English chaipiel. The prosecution alleges that he poisoned her with massive doses of drugs, including morphia and heroin. The motive is alleged to have been greed for possession of what the bachelor family doctor believed he would be left in Mrs Morrell’s will. Yesterday, Nurse Randall was cross-examined for nearly four hours by the doctor’s defence counsel, Mr Geoffrey Lawrence. She agreed that while Dr. Adams was on holiday his partner, Dr. Ronald Harris treated Mrs. Morrell and had increased the morphia and heroin dosage to try to cure her awful restlessness. Mr Lawrence asked if this were not exactly the way Dr. Adams tried to deal with the case on his return when the widow’s condition later grew worse. Nurse Randall said that this was so. Everyone, she agreed, was trying to get “this poor woman to sleep.”