Accused Found Deeply Unconscious On Her Bed

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31278, 26 January 1967, Page 3

Accused Found Deeply Unconscious On Her Bed

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, January 25. A nursing sister, Doreen Ellen Davis, aged 30, who is accused of murder, was found deeply unconscious on her bed with a scalpel held in one hand and an empty pill bottle nearby, a doctor told Mr W. J. Meade, S.M., today.

Davis is charged with the murder of Raewyn Kathleen Joy Petley, aged 40, charge sister, at Whenuapai air base, on November 19, 1966.

Ten witnesses were called today. The hearing will continue tomorrow. Mr J. G. Miles is prosecuting for the Crown and Mr K. Ryan is appearing for the accused. The doctor, James Richard Collin MacLaurin, said he received a telephone call about 9.50 a.m. on November 19 and went to Whenuapai where he was shown to Sister Petley’s room. “Sister Petley was lying on her back with the bedclothes closely drawn up under her chin,” said Dr. MacLaurin. “The appearance and body temperature was such that I thought she had been dead for some time.” He examined the body

superficially, and when he pulled back the coverlet he saw a bloodstained towel lying across the neck. There was a great quantity of blood on the lower sheet and nattress, but the room showed no signs of any struggle having taken place. Both windows were closed, but one was just ajar and unlatched. Dr. MacLaurin said he then went to Mill House, the women officers’ quarters at Hobsonville, with the police. They tried to arouse Sister Davis by knocking on her door and calling out, but were unsuccessful and finally got into the room by breaking a window. Sister Davis was deeply unconscious. “She had a surgical scalpel in her right hand,” said the witness. Dr. MacLaurin said a towel had also been placed under

Sister Davis’s head and neck and he saw a tiny trickle of blood from a small nick approximately at the angle of the jaw on the left side. There was an empty bottle labelled with the name of some capsules, and beer battle in a wastepaper basket by the side of the bed. Cross-examined, Dr. MacLaurin said he considered it probable that the nick was self-inflicted. “It was very tiny, no more than a scratch.” Scalpels Checked

Trevor Henry Weaver, sergeant of the medical section at Hobsonville, said that on November 21 he checked the scalpels at Hobsonville and Whenuapai. Two scalpel handles were missing from Hobsonville and a ball-point pen had been put in the leather sheath in which one was normally kept. Sergeant Weaver identified a scalpel produced in evidence as the one missing from the leather sheath. He said he checked the dangerous drug cupboard at Hobsonville but did not find any drugs missing. He did not check the dangerous drug cupboard at Whenuapai. Dr. Robert Albert Boas, registrar to the respiratory unit at Auckland Hospital, said Davis was brought in to the unit without any breathing or detectable pulse. “She was cyanosed, which indicated that she had not had an adequate heartbeat or oxygen for some time. I felt she was clinically dead,” said Dr. Boas. He said that about 15 minutes after resuscitation and massive doses of drugs, a pulse was felt. Dr.' Boas said more elaborate methods for determining the pulse were not tried because of the urgency of the situation. Initially, the blood pressure was very low, but with massive blood transfusion and more drugs it was brought to normal after two hours. Traces Of Blood Detective William George Gilliam said he examined the outside of the women’s quarters on November 19, and found slight traces of blood beneath the window and on the window-sill of Sister Petley’s room. One window was partly closed but not locked. There were no signs of any struggle inside the room.

Flight Lieutenant Stephen England Gillingham said that on November 18, he attended a party in the evening in the Whenuapai Officers’ Mess. He left with a previous witness, Sister Phipps, about midnight and they walked to the officers’ quarters.

They went into Sister Phipps’s room for “a minutetwo minutes or so.” On the way to the women’s lounge, they heard a voice coming from one of the rooms. He heard a very low voice, calling for help, something like, “Please help me, God, please help me.” Miss Phipps called out twice, but there was no reply. She tried the door handle but it was locked.

“I didn’t attach any significance to this noise,” said the witness. “I thought the person inside was having a nightmare and that’s all.”

With Miss Phipps he ran outside to the window of Miss Petley’s room. He stood behind Miss Phipps as she called out to Miss Petley twice more. He heard another voice say to Miss Phipps, something like: “She’s all right, she will be all right soon.” After that he went with Miss Phipps to the lounge where they stayed about two hours. Saw Davis Leave Jeanette Catherine Brittain, nursing sister, said 15 minutes after Sister Phipps and a man ran round to Sister Petley’s window, the accused ran to her car and drove off. “I couldn’t see where Sister Davis came from,” she said. “But she was wearing dark slacks and a white top.

“On November 18 I saw Sister Davis in the evening. She was wearing dark slacks, white blouse and mustard moccasins. She was carrying a flagon of beer but did not appear to have drunk any.” When asked how Sister Davis appeared, Sister Brittain said she was normal. Sister Brittain said it was unusual for a nursing sister to carry a scalpel around in her kit, but she thought she had seen one in Sister Davis’s. After November 19, Sister Brittain was given Sister Davis’s kit to mind and she noticed a broken test tube lying on top. Test tubes were quite often used to sterilise scalpel blades. Cross-examined, Sister Brittain said she saw Davis distinctly when the accused went to her car in the early hours of November 19. She said the glass fragments found on top of the accused’s medical kit were definitely part of a test tube. Mr Ryan: It was the sort of test tube that one can keep a thermometer in?—Yes.