CASHEL STREET TRAGEDY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9451, 25 February 1911, Page 2

CASHEL STREET TRAGEDY.

INQUEST CONCLUDES.

EVIDENCE OF MEDICAL MEN,

(Per Press Association.! • CHRISTCHTJRCH, Fob. 24. The inquest on Ethel May Bradley was concluded yesterday. Evidence was given lay A. A. Bickerton, Government Analyist, who stated' that assuming Sadler's evidence to be correct the woman would not be far from the door of the shop when she took the poison. Assuming she' had her tea at 6.30, he would say ,that death took place three hours afterwards. Dr. Symes said if. Sadler's evidence was correct he would say the dose was not a very large one. After further evidence the Coroner, in summing up, said if the jury believed Sadler's evidence they must acquit him of any share in the woman's death, but it did not clear Jack. There must have been certain things pass between Jack and Sadler on the evening. Jack had placed himself in a difficulty by making a false statement, which, if Sadler's evidence was true, was a tissue of lies. Three things only suggested themselves to his mind —(1) that the 'woman was. willfully murdered, or (2) that she committed suicide in a fit of desperation, or (3) an open verdict that deceased died from the effects of prussic acid, and there was no evidence to show how or by whom she died." Sadler's act had been, that of a coward, and he had been callous to plant a woman under a tank in a mass of rubbish in a lane in the city. However, Sadler had made up somewhat for his previous delinquencies by the tendering of his evidence that day. The jury, after an hour and twenty minutes' retirement, returned the following verdict:—"We find that deceased, Ethel May Bradley, died by prussic acid poisoning. 'Whether it was administered by herself or by other persons we cannot say. Wo are of opinion that poison was taken in the presence of Harry Jack." •.