ACCIDENTAL DEATH

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 121, 19 November 1934, Page 11

ACCIDENTAL DEATH

YOUTH SHOT IN HEAD

EVIDENCE AT INQUEST

An inquest was hold this morning concerning the death of Neville Davys, aged 21, who died as a result of a bullet wound at Haywaxls on Friday. '

Mrs. Janio Davys, mother of the deceased, said that her soa arrived horne1 about 6.50 p.m. on Friday and, expressed his, intention after tea of going out to shoot hares, and loft tho> kitchen to get the rifle from his bedroom. Shortly afterwards she heard an explosion, and on going to the bedroom found her son lying on v the floor suffering from a bullet wound. Ho had never expressed any intention of committing suicide. Ho was not" worried, and was quito happy. It was his intontion to go to Massey College as a student next March. .

Glory Margaret Pegg, said she saw the deceased when he arrived home. Ho was v&ry bright and happy and had no , appearance of being worried. i Stanley "Bertram Davys, 'brother of the deceased, said that threo days pro-' viously Neville had called at his office | in ■Wellington and had borrowod a rifle1 to skoot hares. Ho was in a quite normal condition, and was extremely j pleased when witness told him that the ' trustees of his1 father's estate had ap-, proved of his going. to. Massey, College. The riflo which witness loaned to the • deceased was defective, the defect being such.that a cartridge might be left' in the chamber without the user being aware of the fact. A further defect was that it needed a jar to release part of the mechanism. When witness was using the rifle it was his habit to jar it on tho floor. In his opinion his brother, whilo sitting ■in a chair, had held the riflo at arm's length in a more or less horizontal position and had jarred it on the end of the bed. His 'brother was a serious-minded boy with no' entanglement. He was fully provided for in his father's will, was not given to impulsive action, and had no possible motive for committing .suicide. He had, religions convictions which would have made it impossible for him to commit an act of self-destruction. There had never been a trace" of mental trouble in. the family. ' MEDICAL OPINION. Dr. Thomas L. Parr stated that the wound was in the right temple and the ,rifle was lying hear the deceased. The nature of the wound puzzled him. If the rifle had been held close to the deceased's head he would have ■ expected a shattered scalp. There was no evidence of smoke on the wound. The wound appeared to follow a downward direction, and death was not due to injury to the brain, but to hemorrhage. He could not reconstruct tho actioirof tho deceased either in the assumption of accident, or of ,self-destruction.

After further evidence had been hoard, the Coroner said, that there was no apparent Teason for believing that the lad had intended to take his life. Had he so intended ho would most probably have directed the rifle to his mouth. Tho finding was that tho deceased was accidentally killed in using a .22 calibre rifle prior to going shooting on the evening of November 16.