Doctor Not Guilty Of Unlawful Killing
MELBOURNE. This Day. By direction of a judge at Bendigo the jury acquitted Dr Gerald Russell Fetherston on a charge of having unlawfully killed Rev. Walter James Ding, Baptist pastor, who died on June 21 from peritonitis following an operation performed by Fetherston. The prosecution alleged that (he operation had been carelessly performed. Addressing the jury Mr Justice MacIndoe said that to prove criminal negligence against a doctor it must be shown beyond all reasonable doubt that what the doctor did was of such criminal nature as to deserve punishment. Evidence heard appeared to reduce to a very short compass that the doctor undoubtedly made a mistake. On medical evidence it appeared that any skilled medical man might fall into the same error in diagnosing a condition of the gladder or rigidity of the stomach. It would not be safe to allow a jury to run the rsk of finding him guilty.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NA19440914.2.70
Bibliographic details
Northern Advocate, 14 September 1944, Page 4
Word Count
158Doctor Not Guilty Of Unlawful Killing Northern Advocate, 14 September 1944, Page 4
Using This Item
NZME is the copyright owner for the Northern Advocate. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons New Zealand BY-NC-SA licence . This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of NZME. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in