Psychiatrist’s View “In State Of Automatism”

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31320, 16 March 1967, Page 3

Psychiatrist’s View “In State Of Automatism”

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, March 15. Doreen Ellen Davis may have been in a state of automatism at the time of the death of a fellow nursing sister, a psychiatrist said at her trial for murder in the Supreme Court at Auckland today.

Davis, aged 30, is charged with murdering Raewyn Kathleen Joy Petley, aged 40, at Whenuapai on November 19. She is being tried by a jury of three women and nine men before Mr Justice Moller.

Mr K. Ryan appears for the accused and Mr D. S. Morris, with him Mr J. G. Miles, for the Crown. The trial has so far occup:ed eight days. Henry Charles Bethune, a psychiatrist and pathologist, said that he saw the accused on November 27, before she was arrested, and on December 17 and 23 at the request of the Army. From what he had heard in evidence and from the photographs he had seen, he was of the opinion that the wound in Sister Petley’s neck could most certainly have been self-inflicted. Patchy Memory Bethune said that because of the long period the accused’s brain had been without oxygen she could have a patchy memory, like a person concussed. She had a good memory for past events, but a confused recollection of events just before November 19. The accused was then- capable of carrying on a sustained conversation so long as this was kept away from certain subjects.

Bethune said letters written but not posted by Sister Petley to the accused while the latter was overseas revealed that the dead woman was a congenital or essential homosexual.

He strongly suspected the dead woman had a depressive illness as a reaction to her depressed drives. In her selfmedication she had used drugs commonly known as pep pills and a drug commonly used by homosexuals to damp down their sex drives.

In his opinion, the accused had on the night of November 18 a form of automatism known as de-personalisation. This would account for the happenings in Sister Petley’s room whether what occurred there was a homicide or suicide. “A Spectator” In cases such as this, the subject would feel that he or she was a spectator of his or her own activities.

In the witness's opinion, the accused de-personalised when her friend committed suicide, or when an unexpected sexual assault was made on her.

If the latter, she would have only vague recollections of what she had done. It was possible that she had not cut Sister Petley’s throat in the way described by Dr Cairns. The accused would have seen things as though they were happening, but she was not taking part. There would be vague feelings that something was happening to her. In the witness’s opinion, a person in a de-personalised state could not form intent.

In his opinion, Sister Petley was under severe emotional stress and likely to take her own life. Those in such a depressed state were likely to commit suicide in the most bizarre ways. Opinion On Wound Experiments had shown that those in a de-personalised condition could withstand severe pain. James Frederick Moodie. an Army doctor, said that in his opinion Sister Petley’s neck wound could have been selfinflicted. “It is well known that the average self-inflicted injury involving the neck tends to be an oblique cut starting high toward the rear of the neck and running downward and forward. This is well established in medical jurisprudence books,” said the witness. According to photographs, the wound suffered by Sister Petley sloped forward and downward.

Cross-examined by Mr Morris, the witness agreed that Dr Cairns was in a better position to make an opinion on the wound, having seen both the body and the injury. He could not agree with Dr Cairns that a person weakened in strength at the end of a self-inflicted cut. Reasons Given

Asked by Mr Ryan, how he had concluded that the cut could have been self-inflicted, witness said he had considered first the angle of the cut, its position and direction and secondly that it was supposedly inflicted by a sharp weapon (a scalpel), the depth of the cut, the reported actions of the victim after the cut and the quantity of blood lost. Mary Webster Wilson, Director of the Royal New Zealand Nursing Corps, said she saw Davis on November 4, mainly to find out the reason why she was resisting posting to Wigram. “We talked about her job and she broke down and cried,” she said. “Ellen Davis in my opinion, was a capable and efficient nursing sister.”