POIGNANT DRAMA

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 January 1930, Page 5

POIGNANT DRAMA

ADELAIDE WOMAN’S PLIGHT.

LONDON, January 7. , A poignant domestic drama was staged in the dismal Woolwich Police Court when Mrs Eva Gertrude Langsford, 35, a Bachelor of Arts, of Castle Hotel, Eltham, and formerly of Adelaide, was charged with the attempted murder of four of her children, and also attempted suicide. The children are:—Donald Mackenzie, 7 years; Ruth Adele, 5. years; Diana, 3 years; and Irene Eltham, 2 years. Mrs Langsford’s husband, who is the son of an Adelaide clergyman, sat alone at the rear of the Court. ■ He told the Australian Press Association representative: “1 cannot speak to a, Pressman. Find out what you can, I do not care how.” • Mrs Langsford was smartly dressed in a brown coat, cloche hat, and white gloves. She is fresh-complexioned, with sad, wistful eyes. An elder daughter, Helen Mary, aged 9 years, smilingly entered the witness box. She regarded the magistrate with big brown eyes, and gave her evidence clearly in a soft voice. She said that on November 30 the nurse was absent. Her mother called the children upstairs to the bedroom, picked up a bottle from the dressing table, and poured out a spoonful, saying: “Here is medicine.” “I said I did not want it, and asked her, ‘Are you trying to poison us?’” said witness. “Mother denied it, and I said, ‘Yes, you are, I take it.’ Mother gave a spoonful to the four children, and they cried. Mother firank some herself. All lay down, as they were sleepy. I put pillowy under them and said, ‘I will fetch somebody and tell them you have been poisoned.’ Mother said that I must not. I asked her why she had poisoned them, and mother replied, ‘Because' daddy is dead.’ I asked her how she knew, and Another replied, ‘Because he has not returned. The children were ill. Diana called out, ‘Mother’s choking,’ and I fetched the hotel proprietor.”

NURSE'S STORY.

The hotel proprietor stated that tho Langsfords, with a nurse, stayed at the hotel from June, 1928. at a cost, of £l3 a week, and owed more than £2OO. The mother was financially worried. The husband went to London on November 25 and did not return. . Stella Hodge, a nurse, gave evidence • that she accompanied the Langsfords from Adelaide in 1927. Mrs Langsford went to London to raise money, and also to obtain news of her husband. She returned distressed, having ascertained that he had sold their tickets a year ago. Next day she seemed strange. “I thought the strain was too much for her, and advised her to rest, and she obeyed.” The husband came to London originally to dispose of a patent. Sometimes he received money from Australia, but last year his funds became exhausted. His deception was the final crash. When cautioned and asked to plead, the. mother said firmly: “I am not guilty. I reserve my defence.” She was committed for trial at the Central Criminal Court. It is understood that relatives are prepared to send the mother and chil" clren back to Australia.