CASE OF SUICIDE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 32, 8 February 1927, Page 14

CASE OF SUICIDE

PRISONER HANGS HIMSELF

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

CHRISTCHUBCH,. 7th Feb.

An inmate of the Paparua Prison, Erie John Barlow, • committed; suicide in his cell yesterday by hanging. Barlow was all right at IS! o 'dock, when a warder passed his cell. - An hour later, when the warder- returned, he found Barlow hanging by tia belt from the top of the window. Barlow was sentenced to three yisars' reformative detention at Dunedin on 7th December for assault, causing actual bodily harm. He had been under a delation that he was suffering from organic trouble. An inquest concerning Barlow's death was held to-day by Mr. H. A. Young, Coroner. William Thomas Leggett, superintendent of the Paparua Prison, said thafc' Barlow had • been in a mental hospital, but had never given any indication that he would commit suicide. The waist strap with which he ha,d hanged himself was an official issue to all prisoners. In the morning he had written a letter to his mother, but he did not mention anything about taking his own life. . ■

A relative of Barlow's who had visited him on Saturday stated that Barlow had said that he would commit suicide, but the witness had not taken him seriously, as he had heard the same remark on previous occasions. " ■

A verdict was returned that Barlow committed suicide by hanging while he was temporarily insane. The Coroner added that Barlow had been properly treated by the authorities during the time he was in prison.