SISTERS’ TRAGEDY

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 287, 31 August 1931, Page 5

SISTERS’ TRAGEDY

Poison as an Act of Pity Tlie tragedy of an elderly woman who administered poison to her sister to end her sufferings, and then took poison herself, was revealed at an inquest at Lewes, Sussex, recently, on Miss Caroline Mary Huggett, aged 66, and Miss Fannie Elizabeth Huggett, aged 72. Dr. M. L. Irvine gave evidence in the case of Miss Caroline, whom he had attended for two and a half years for epilepsy. He said he had a conversation with the sister, Fannie, and she said: “She has not been so well since I gave her some paste.” Dr. Irvine asked Miss Fannie afterwards if she had really given the poisonous paste to her sister, and she replied: “Yes, as a matter of fact, I took some myself.” Mrs. Ethel Scroggins, who went to work at the house during the day, said she asked Miss Fannie why she had done it. She replied: “Poor dear, I could not bear to see her suffering nny longer.” The jury returned a verdict that Caroline Huggett died from the effects of poison administered by her sister with intent to kill, and that Fannie Huggett died from poison taken by herself with intent to kill while of an unbalanced mind owing to the worry of looking after her sistetk