A Dispenser Acquitted

Northern Advocate, 30 July 1938, Page 9

A Dispenser Acquitted

(■Received 11-30 a.m.) SYDNEY, July 29. At the quai’ter session, Walter Peck, chemist and dispenser of the Burwood Friendly Societies’ Dispensary, was acquitted of th emanslaughter of two brothers, James Edward Cobban, ag'ed 15, and James Cobban, aged 13. The jury returned its verdict of not guilty without hearing counsel’s addresses ro the judge’s summing up. The two boys died in a private hospital in Burwood on May 10 and May 11 respectively. The verdict at the inquest was that the deaths were due to the effect of a deadly drug known as paraIdhyde, administered to an excessive amount. The evidence at the trial disclosed that Peck dispensed drachms instead of ounces. Peck admitted he had made a mistake in reading the doctor’s prescription. He told the jury he would regret it all his life. He deeply deplored the boys’ deaths and their parents anguish. Accused attributed his mistake to worry and fear of a recurrence of cancer in the throat from which he had supposedly been cured.