POISONING CASE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 28 August 1924, Page 5

POISONING CASE

USE OF ARSENIC,

CHARGE OF MATRICIDE

BY CABLE—PBEBB ASSOCIATION—COPYBIGHT,

(Received Aug. 28, 9.15 a.m.) LONDON, Aug. 27. The trial has commenced at Edinburgh of William Laurie King, aged 22, on charges of matricide and attempted patricide. The jury included five women.

The father of the accused gave evidence that following a supper of bread and cheese he and his wife became sick, his wife dying in a few hours. He believed that the food contained arsenic. There had been family differences over his insistence upon the accused becoming an accountant, but no quarrels. On the fatal night he had decided to allow’ his son to follow 7 his ow r n choice, namely, chemistrj’. The accused kept quantities of poison at home, and W’as well behaved and devotedly attendant to his parents. He had been discovered telling lies about the accountancy examinations for W’hich he should have sat, but did not sit, but had no reason to desire his parents’ deaths. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.