"TEMPORARILY INSANE.”

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 3944, 29 May 1913, Page 5

"TEMPORARILY INSANE.”

THE BALCLUTHA TRAGEDY. DECEASED’S WIFE GIVES EVIDENCE. [PRESB ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM! DUENDIN, May 28. The inquest on tho body of Frederick John Littlewood, -who died at Balclutha on April 27, was concluded yesterday. Dr. Stenhouse stated that he thought Mrs Littlewood’s injuries had been caused by a blunt-edged instrument. It was quite feasible that they had been caused by the back edge of a mattock. The child was suffering from a very large bruise on the head and a fracture of the skull, and he also showed .signs of concussion of tho brain. Airs Littlewood also had symptoms of concussion of the brain. It was almost impossible to say whether Littlewood was dead before the fire reached! him.

Ethel Littlewood,. the widow of deceased, said tliat on April 26 her husband appeared a bit down-hearted and depressed. During the night, she missed her husband from the bedroom, but ho returned l when she called out to him. When witness asked him whore he had been, be did riot' reply, but caught lfer by the shoulder, struck her on the head with a wood'chopper and caught her by the throat. She then, lost consciousness, and when she regained it, she Found the bedroom door closed. On opening the door, she found the house on fire. The child cried when she was struck, but was quiet after that. When she discovered the fire, she put the childi out of the window and she thought he must have fallen on the footpath. Her husband did not drink. . Tho only solution she could give of his mental lapse was that he had been troubled through want of sleep. He had told her ho had been unable to sleep. The jury returned a verdict that the evidence pointed to a fit of temporary insanity, but there was not sufficient evidence to show whether deceased came by death from the fire, or from a self-inflicted wound.