BABY SHOT IN PLAY

Hawera Star, Volume L, 28 October 1930, Page 7

BABY SHOT IN PLAY

REMORSE OF THE FATHER. A LOADED GUN TRAGEDY. ‘‘Take my advice and never allow a child to play with a gun of any sort * or description,” w'as the remark made by the Martlesham, Suffolk, coroner to a man whose infant son was fatally shot under distressing circumstances. The victim of the tragedy; Frederick Burton, the nine-months-old. son of Mr. Ernest Bertram Burton, received fatal injuries while Iris five-year-old brother, Hubert, was handling a gun. As a result of an S.O.S. circulated by the East Suffolk police after the mishap Mrs. D. Burton, grandmother of the baby, who was travelling in a caravan in Nottingham district, was found by the police and arrived at Martlesham just before the inquest. - Evidence was given that the family travelled the country with a motor car and trailer, and the other morning the father loaded his gun to shoot a rabbit. Before he could fire, the rabbit had disappeared and he placed the weapon on the front side of the car and went to the aerodrome at Martlesham to get some petrol. A daughter stated that while the father was absent her little brother took up the gun and said, “I will shoot you.” He first aimed it at his i sister Matilda, and there .was a I “click” but the gun misfired. Then he aimed it at witness and she put lup her hand. The nest instant there was a report, and she saw little Frederick had been shot and was lying beside her. She at once ran to her mother.

The father heard his wife scream, and hurried back, to find his baby dying. To Mr. Burton, who described, how he laid down the weapon, the coroner remarked : “There is not much trouble in loading and unloading a gun, is there?”

The Father: No, sir. The Coroner: It is a pity that people are so careless, as it is so foolish to leave loaded guns about. I hope it will be a lesson to you. “It will, till I die,” replied the father, “but I want to receive punishment for it.” , Mr. Burton admitted that he often allowed his children to play with the gun when it was unloaded. A verdict of “Death by misadventure” was returned.