DR CLEMENTS MURDERS WIFE AND COMMITS SUICIDE, IS THE VERDICT OF JURY

Evening Star, Issue 26139, 28 June 1947, Page 7

DR CLEMENTS MURDERS WIFE AND COMMITS SUICIDE, IS THE VERDICT OF JURY

(Ree. 9.30 a.m.) LONDON, June 27. The coroner’s jury found that Dr Clements murdered his- wife and then committed suicide, also that Dr Houston committed suicide while his balance of mind was disturbed. This was the finding at the inquest into the deaths of Dr Robert George Clements, his fourth wife, Amy Victoria Clements, and Dr James Montague Houston, who performed a post mortem" examination of Mrs Clements. The Coroner, in his summing-up. said he believed that the jury would have concluded that Mrs Clements died from morphine poisoning and that her 'death passed from the category of natural causes. The Coroner told the jury that the evidence did not help to direct it on the question whether morphine was accidentally administered to Mrs Clements. He next reviewed the evidence for and against the possibility cf suicide with the associated question cf the state of mind of Mrs Clements, and added that there had been no evidence of any financial trouble or any contemplation of suicide. On the question of the possibility of murder the Coroner told the jury that of all forms of killing poison was the most detestnble and the least capable of being guarded against *by foresight. He added .that if the jury concluded that Mrs Clements was murdered, its thoughts must be directed towards the husband, but it was necessary to be fair and ]ust to the memory of Dr Clements. The Coroner said that Dr Clements was aware of the pin-point pupils of his wife’s eyes (a sign of morphine poisoning), yet had not drawn the attention of Dr Holmes to them. What, if anything, did he have to hide? Did Dr Clements desire to rid himself of his wife? Why did he make large purchases of morphia sulphate tablets? The Coroner said there was no evidence that Dr Clements would benefit by his wife’s death or that he was without means or that he planned to acquire the part of her estate to which he was legally entitled if she died a natural death, but he warned the jury that the motive was immaterial if they thought Dr Clements wilfully caused his wife’s death. Dealing with Dr Clements’s own death, the Coroner said: Did he realise at the last moment that the act which lie had committed had become known to the police? Did he realise that the net was closing round him and so in order to evade the course of the law he took his own life? The jury added a rider that Dr Houston’s diabetic condition and overeonscientionsness were contributing factors to his suicide. 1