CORONER’S COURT Foster-child’s death from brain injuries

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33058, 27 October 1972, Page 7

CORONER’S COURT Foster-child’s death from brain injuries

An infant who became unconscious after being pushed by her foster-mother and falling against furniture died on April 30 as a result of cerebral haemorrhages. This was the finding when the inquest into the child’s death was concluded yesterday by the Christchurch district Coroner (Mr E. B. E. Taylor). The child was Tarmara Michell Grennell, aged 15 months. Detective Sergeant Peter Lumsden Ward said in evidence that he interviewed Mrs Lorraine Anne Claridge at 17 O'Learv Street, Hoon Hay. on April 27. Later the same day Mrs Claridge made a statement at the Central Police Station in which she said that Tarmara came into her home as a fosterchild on March 29 through the Child Welfare Division. ■‘She was a very naughty child when we first got her and although she was walking she would not do as I asked,” the statement said. “This used to annov me and I thought she was not settling in very well to a strange place. “She did not settle m after a couple of weeks and my husband smacked her a few times on the bottom and the legs to make her obey us. He bruised her, as he is a big man. I told him to be more careful when hitting her as 1 did not want to see her bruised.

“In the last fortnight she has been getting on my nerves a bit and 1, too. started to hit her . . . my hitting her did not seem to to make any difference."

Mrs Claridge said that about 1.40 p.m. on April 27 she was getting Tarmara ready for bed and gave her a little push in the hallway towards the bedroom. “She just fell over in the hallway near the doorway. She fell on her face and hit her forehead on the floor. I picked her up bv her arms. She was crying a lot so I gave her a wee push into mv bedroom. She still wouldn’t do as she was told, so I picked her up and put her on the bed.”

Mrs Claridge said that the child fell over twice in the hallwav before she took her into the bedroom. On the second occasion she thought the child hit her head on the dressing-table leg or a draw-er handle.

“When I picked her up the second time she sort of went all loose and her head flopped back. It was then that I put her on the bed. She was unconscious.”

Mrs Claridge said she received about 55.50 a week for looking after the child. Detective Sergeant Ward said that he arrested Mrs Claridge on May 1 and charged her with the manslaughter of the child. “I was present in the Christchurch Magistrate’s Court on August 30 when the Information charging Mrs Claridge was dismissed, the magistrate then holding there was no evidence of crime.”

Dr Leonard Lawrence Treadgold. a pathologist at Christchurch Hospital, said he found marked laceration and haemorr-

hage of the brain when he examined the child’s body on May 1. There were no fractures of the skull bones.

The brain was congested and oedematous. “These haemorrhages could well have been caused by a severe blow to the skull although there was no fracture to the skull,” he said. LEVEL-CROSSING ACCIDENT

A child who was struck by a rail-car on the Gilberthorpes Road level crossing was found to have died as a result of multiple injuries on August 21. He was Stephen Wayne Heslop, aged four years and a half, a son of Mr and Mrs E. Heslop, of Hornby.

Henry Herbert Ferguson, aged 35, a locomotive driver, said that he was driving a rail-car from Arthur’s Pass about 3.30 p.m. on August 21 and approaching the Gilberthorpes crossing when he saw a small boy waiting at the crossing alarms on a tricycle. "I sounded the warning device as is normal practice,” he said.

“When within perhaps 15 to 20 yards of the crossing I saw the boy look back over his shoulder as if someone had called to him. The small boy immediately peddled his tricycle on to the rails in front of my rail-car. “I immediately applied the brakes, but it was impossible to avoid the accident . . . when I saw him moving in the direction of the railway line I again sounded the whistle, this time continuously, and simultaneously applied the brakes.” The witness said the crossing was clear and the alarms functioning as he came out of the curving approach to the crossing. MOTOR-CYCLIST’S DEATH

Trevor Hall Carter aged 18, was found to have died at Christchurch Hospital on July 14. The cause of death was haemoperitoneum caused by a ruptured liver.

Mr Carter was the rider of a motor-cycle which struck the back of a truck at the intersection of Riccarton Road and Matipo Street about 2.50 p.m. on July 14. PEDESTRIAN S DEATH

Marguerite Grace Wells, aged 65, died at Christchurch Hospital on August 17. -The cause of death was bronchopneumonia and multiple Injuries. The injuries were suffered when she was struck by a motorcycle ridden by Alan David Malone, aged 16, an* apprentice, in Hoon Hay Road about 7 p.m. on August 6. PEDESTRIAN KILLED

Albert Owen Cox, aged 88, died 'at Christchurch Hospital on July 28. The cause of death was a massive internal haemorrhage suffered when he was struck by ' a car driven by Mervyn Rex (Thompson, aged 27, a salesman, in Somerfield Street the same day.