‘May Have Cut Own Throat’

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31321, 17 March 1967, Page 3

‘May Have Cut Own Throat’

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, March 16. The woman whom Doreen Ellen Davis is accused of murdering may have cut her own throat, Lindsay Brown, a pathologist, told the Supreme Court at Auckland todav.

Davis, aged 30, is charged with murdering a fellow nursing sister, 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. Mr Ryan closed his case today. Wound Examined Brown said that he had seen Sister Petley's body some time after the postmortem examination. The wound in the neck had been sewn up but he had seen tissue from the neck and photographs. In his opinion, it was unlikely that the wound was self-inflicted because it started at the back of the neck. It seemed unlikely that a righthanded person would reach the back of the neck. 2 If the scalpel had been held

in the left hand, the wound could have been self-inflicted. He still held this opinion, considering only the wound.

After the trial had been in progress 40 minutes this morning the Court was adjourned until noon because a woman juror collapsed. She was attended by a doctor. H. C. Bethune, a psychiatrist who gave evidence yesterday, agreed with Mr Morris that in many respects Davis was like a machine when depersonalised. Mr Morris: It could be termed temporary insanity in some cases?—Yes. In this case?—l was not there. I would not know specifically if this case was temporary insanity unless 1 was there at the time of this disassociation. In 13 hours of examination with Davis, 1 could find no evidence of insanity. I am not saying it is impossible. Davis would not know if she did apply a scalpel to Sister Petley’s throat. “Would Not Know” “I have no way of telling what she would be thinking if she did so, but In her conscious mind she would not know she was cutting her throat.” Bethune said.

“I cannot guarantee, however, that she would not know that she was committing an aggressive action, but she would not be able to form intent.”

In. a report sent to the Army the witness had said that he was of the opinion that the accused suffered from acute anxiety neurosis. He attached importance to what Davis told him in interviews in coming to his conclusions about when Davis became depersonalised, but not the greatest importance. What she told he considered mere islands of memory plus retrograde elaborations. In one sense of the word Davis was making up what she could not remember. Counsel will make their addresses tomorrow and the Judge will sum up on Monday.