ENGINE-DRIVER NOT GUILTY

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 March 1935, Page 12

ENGINE-DRIVER NOT GUILTY

CARRIED OUT IN DEAD FAINT.

, GLASGOW, January 31. There were emotional scenes in the Sheriff .Court here this afternoon when David Kerr, the engine-driver accused of culpable homicide in connection .with a railway collision last September, when nine people lost their lives, collapsed several times, had to have a doctor sitting with him in the dock, and was finally carried out of court in a dead faint when the jurj" brought in a unanimous verdict of no( guilty.

The applause with Which the verdict was received was. immediately stopped, and Sheriff Haldane stated that the verdict completely exonerated Keri’ from all criminal responsibility for the accident. Earlier in the day Kerr himself was in the box for 45 minutes, and when he went back to the dock there were tears in his eyes. He had said he made no mistake about the signals. The Toad was clear, and then the signal changed to danger when it was too late to pull up. When at the end of the evidence, counsel were addressing the jury Kerr was seriously distressed. Tears were in his eyes, he mopped his brow, and lie was trembling so much that a glass Of water shook in his hand. His distress grew worse as the Sheriff was summing-up. He shook violently and perspiration was streaming down his face.

A doctor, Dr Campbell, was summoned, and when he felt Kerr’s pulse, he said to one of the court officers ’•/You had better get him oiR of here.” The court adjourned lor about ten minutes, and then Dr Campbell stated that Kerr was fit to resume but only under supervision, and he asked permission to sit with him in the dock. When the jury returned to court Kerr had again to be assisted into the box. On his discharge he did not seem to realise that he was being congratulated, and was carried out to a corridor, where he lay moaning for 15 minutes. "He will be ail right now,” raid the doctor. “It was just the excitement of the' verdict that affected him.” He, was taken home in a taxicab.