COATS IN BOX

Grey River Argus, 10 November 1931, Page 5

COATS IN BOX

SAYS IT WAS SUICIDE SIR D. McGAVIN Gives Evidence in Support (|Por Press Association). WELLINGTON, Nov. 9. The Coats trial was resumed dramatically this morning, accused himself being the first witness called. Examined by his counsel, Coats said that when he first mot Phyllis Symons lie used to take her to the pictures or for walks. On the first Sunday in March, when he went up to his room after tea. het found the girl on his bed. After she had had a cry, the girl said she had had a row nt home, and had run away. The girl said she was frightened of her mother, and seeing her mother had told her to get out and never come back, she had jumped 'out of a window and come to accused. When accused suggested the girl .should sleep elsewhere, she said if he didn’t let her stay with him, she would throw herself over at Oriental

Coats gave details of their life together. saying that the girl was always a miserable girl, and often threatened io throw herself off at Hataitai bridge in Central Park, and also off an embankment in Mortimer Terrace. Accused told her if she did that he would probably be blamed for it. Tn regard to the incident of the occasion when he once hit the girl over the head, he said ho had only done it playfully with a stick he 'picked up on the road to stop her talking about suicide. Ho admitted that he got a shovel left out, but said that this was at the girl’s request. He thought that if he showed the girl the shovel this would make her admit that she was only fooling. On June 26. he and the girl went out for a walk. On the way out, the

girl picked up a valise and put a sack in it. She always used to take a sack to sit on when they went for a walk. They went over to the tip at Hataitai and sat down. The girl was more depressed than usual. Continuing. Coats said that after sitting down for a while, the girl left him. Jle smoked a couple of cigarettes and then thinking the girl had been away a long time, got up and looked for her. “As I got to the junction of the two tips, I saw a big lump down the face of the tip. A light was shining on it so T scrambled down. It was Phyllis. She was lying flat our with her head down the hill, about half way down. Accused described the position of the body, and then said he looked to sec if there was any sign of breathing. The girl had a scarf wrapped around her face. He thought her neck was broken. He was sure she was dead. “I stood there for about a minute and then I realised I would probably be blamed for it, if I drew anybody’s attention to it. I ran along to the place where I had left a shovel, and dug a hole in the bank.” He added that after some difficulty he got the girl in the hole. He took the sack out of the case and spread it over her because he thought it was more decent. After placing some stones to keep the body in position, he covered it up. After he had finished filling bole b.e flung the shovel away. Defendant counsel: The Crown charges you with having murdered Phyllis Symons on this night. Is there a word of truth in it.—No, there is not. T did not.

Accused said that there was very little truth in the statement he had made to Detective Murray. The Detective had questioned him about sending the girl away to procure a certain result. There was no question about the girl being dead. Cross-examined, Coats admitted that the stories he had told as to the girl’s whereabouts after June 26 were falsehoods. Accused said that the incident in which Glover alleged that accused made as if to perform a certain operation, was done by arrangement with Phyllis, to stop Glover teasing her about her condition.

Accused admitted digging a hole in the tip early in June. It was for shelter. He used to go to a card party every Wednesday and Saturday, leaving the girl at home. When telling Glover about the incident of tapping the girl over the head he had drawn on his imagination, because Glover was always looking for sensations. The only way to stop the girl talking about throwing herself over at Hataitai, was to take her over there and she seemed to alter her mind when she got there. He denied ever saying to Glover that if Phyllis died, he could easily put her over at Hataitai, but admitted saying that it would be a good place to bury anyone. When they had gone out on the night of June 26th, he and the girl sat on some clay. It had been raining that day, but did not rain while they were out.

Burial of Body COATS’ EXPLANATION. (,Per Press Association). WELLINGTON, November 9. when Coats, at his trial was asked what he did when he first knelt beside the girl on the slope of the tip, the prisoner said that he turned het around. It had never at any time, entered his head to take off the bandage around’ her face. He could have buried the . body in the top 'of the tip, but it wa s easlier to dig a hole in the leaver, tip. The accused denied that he had put the sack over; the body so that it would not l-e noticed by the workmen. Coats w'ould not agree With the medical evidence that the body had died in thfe position, in wh|ieh it was fotad. After' burying th§ body; he

said he was very shaken. His reason for calling on De Maine was that he wa 3 half decided to tell De Maine what had occurred The accused saiid that on the morning of June 26th, he formed the intention 'of talcing Phyllis out sometime to see th'e shovel, but not necessarily that n|ight. COATS CROSS EXAMINED. Under cross examination, Coats said that De Maine was an old friend of himself and bps sister, Evie. He denied telling De Maline, in reference to the time whon he hit the girl, that he did not feel like killing her. He denied telling De Maine that Hataitai would be a good place to bury Phyllis. When he was interviewed by the police on July 6th, and was asked where Phfyjlis had gone to, he had not heard olf any inquiries boling made as to Phyllis’s ■whereabouts right from the time when she came to live with hj/m. Counsel for the accused re-examin-ed Coats for |less than a minute.

Suicide Theory SIB D. McGAVIN’S EVIDENCE. GIVES IT CREDENCE. WELLINGTON, November 9. /In, the iCoats trial; evidence was given for the defence by Sir Donald ■ McGavin, M.D., (London), F.R.C.S., (England), L.R.C.P., (Londotn.) He said that he had been a. D.M.S., to the New Zealand Division from 1916 until, t’hje end of the wait He said it was possible for the girl’s injuries, as deposed by Dr. Lynch, to have been received through throwing herself from the top of an embankment, such as that at Hataitai. Sir Donald illustrated, with a m'odel figure and a sloping black-board, how, in has opin I on, the giirl had {made her plunge in the dark. She fell! somewhat obliquely and struck her right temple on an object eta. tho face of the declivity. In conformity with the slope of the declivity she turned over on, her left side. The impetus behind her, aided by gravity, tended to push the lower part erf the head and t'he left shoulder downward The left shoulder, however, became embedded in soft material, and the head tended to be separated from the left shoulder,. The trunk and remainder of the body were thrown to the right, and the right arm wa s projected forward. That was the position in which the body woiuld be found. The loft arm was at the side. The bruise had bee n caused where she struck her t*ight temple, and there was a contrecoup injury on the opposite side of tlix? brain. Separation would cause bruising and rupturing of muscley and other structures at the back and left side of the neck. Such an injury was kn'own as a traction injury, When the girl struck her head, she was concussed, and when recovering from the concussion, she vomited. Such vomiting happened in. th® great majority of ca&esi of ooncussion, but her face was buried ini the soft earth of the bank, and she was unable to eject the vqmited matter. Some was inhaled into the air passage, and she died of asphyxia, no|t more than two minutes later.

To tho suggestion of the Crown that the temple (injury had occurred in a generaHy-prlotected region,, Sir Donald said that that was why it had appeared to him that the object struck of a limited extent. It would have to, be of a comparatively Sijnall surface to cause such an injury. Sir DcinaJd cUd. n »t attack any great significance to the absence of abrasions. It was well known that suicides anticipated their involuntary actions in articulo. mortis.. Suicides by drowning sometimes tied thoir hands or feet;. Similarly (in the present case, Sir Donald thought that the girl had probably clasped her hands tightly behind her back. None of the weapons suggested by the Crown seemed entirely suitable to Sir Donald a s weapons with which the temple injury might have been inflict, ed. One pjiece of pipe was quite unsuitable. The use of another was most unlikely. One of the pieces of wood taught havte beqn usccV, asth.ougi l it scorned tod light; The, broad surface of another piece of wood wasi a possible weapon, and a shovel a b° suitable, although in order for a convex surface to attain, a high enough velociity, a long grip would have to be taken, and the weapon worfld be somewjiat unmanageable. As for the other injuries at the back Of the head, Sir Gavin; considered that the ample collection of blbdd indicated a wrench, not a series of blows,. It was well known that injured muscles bled freely.

Sir Donald MeGavin said that he could s ee no reason to suppose as the Crown suggested, that the body had died in the positpein it was found. The position which th/e body would assume when placed in an insufficiently large hole, as Coats had described, might give it the appearance of having tried to rise l . Stentorous breathing .could be caused by coppression, but 'not by To the Crown Prosecutor, Sir Donald said that h G had not seen the body, or been present at the post mortem. Dr. Lynch, if witness might say so, was a most exteellent pathologist, and otne for whom they all had the greatest respect> Sir Donald sajid he accepted Dr. Lynch’s pathological ob servatioTis without question, but d;id not necessarily accept his interpretations. It-was with a full sense of his responsibility to the Court that h e (S|ir Donald), said that it was a pfobaU'lity that the injuries had been caused by a fall, while he disagreed with! Dr. Lynch when the latter said ho thought it inconceivable that sue i extensive head injuries could be cans*ed'by a girl faUJimg, or throwing herself over a bank. •• The Court adjourned shortly afterwards until 10 a.m., • to-morrow.