MURDERED INFANT

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 301, 15 September 1933, Page 13

MURDERED INFANT

Discovery on Beach FINDING AT INQUEST “Murder by some person unknown" was tbe finding returned at an inquest held yesterday in reference to the death of a newly-born male child whosbody was found on August 12 ln a canvas bag on the beach near Happy Valley. Indications found at a postmortem examination as related at tne inquest were that the infant had not been drowned but that death had occurred through violence shortly alter The coroner was Mr. J. S- Barton. S.M. Extensive injuries about the bead and body of the infant were found by Dr. P. P. Lynch, Wellington Hospital pathologist, "when he made the postmortem examination of tbe body a few hours after it was found. In his deposition Dr. Lynch stated that the body was that of a newly-born full-term male child. He described finding fractures about the head, a fractured rib, and a number of bruises. Death was due to head injuries and internal haemorrhage. Such a movement as swinging the child’s body and knocking its head against some object would cause both the head and body injuries, he considered. The child was apparently healthy and had breathed. He judged that death had occurred within a few hours of birth. He could not estimate accurately how long the infant had been dead or how long it had been in the water, but probably death had occurred about 24 hours before he made the post-mortem examination on the afternoon of August 12. Mr. Barton asked if the injuries would have been caused by the body being hit on the rocks by the incoming tide. Dr. Lynch: I think not, your Worship. Can you exelude drowning as the cause of death?—"Yes, I think drowning can bo excluded.” Detective W. R. Murray said that he had conducted extensive Inquiries, but up to the present he had been unable to trace the parents of the child.