CORONER'S COURT Trainee’s death in fall from fifth floor

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32604, 12 May 1971, Page 10

CORONER'S COURT Trainee’s death in fall from fifth floor

Medical evidence indicating that a young trainee nurse could have fallen from a fifth-floor window of Princess Margaret Nurses’ Home as a result of a brain condition causing her to lose her balance was given yesterday when the inquest into her death was concluded by the Christchurch district Coroner (Mr E. B. E. Taylor). The nurse was Angela Dawn Cockerell, aged* 19. The Coroner found that Miss Cockerell died on March 28 as a result of multiple injuries suffered when she accidentally fell from the window.

Detective John Clement Carter said in evidence that Miss Cockerell’s body was found lying on a concrete ramp at the eastern end of the nurses’ home about 11.30 p.m. on March 28. Above the body was an open window on the fifth floor of the home. The window was about 32in from the floor level and in a stairway corridor. It was fully open. “I formed the definite opinion that it would have been impossible for anyone to have pushed Miss Cockerell from this window without a terrific struggle, giving her ample opportunity to scream for help. From the position where she was found fairly close to the wall, it seemed likely that she slid across the concrete window ledge rathet than jumped from it/’

The witness said that no note was found to indicate that Miss Cockerell intended to take her life. > Patrick Robert Kelleher, a medical practitioner and pathologist, produced in evidence a detailed report of his post-mortem examination. He said the presence of a malignant tumour in the cerebellum might have affected her balance. To a question from the Coroner, Dr Kelleher said that Miss Cockerell could have fallen rather than jumped. Her death could have been accidental rather than intentional.