CONVICT SUFFOCATED IN HIS CELL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10319, 19 December 1896, Page 2 (Supplement)

CONVICT SUFFOCATED IN HIS CELL.

ventilators BLOCKED. Mr. Braxton Hicks lately hold an inquiry atH.M. prison, Wandsworth, concerning tho death of John Graham, aged 63, a prisoner undergoing sontonce, who was found partially asphyxiated in his coil on Oct. 18, and died tho following Wednesday. Graham had spent 30 years of his life in penal servitude. Captain Jamoa Knox, tho governor of the prison, gave evidonce of identification, and Said tho deceased was an old offender, having three times been sentenced to penal servitude. His first conviction was in 1858, Ho was last convicted on Oct. sat the Thames l'olico Court.

Wm. Scarlett, a warder, said that on Oct. 18 he was in charge of the deceased, who had boon put in his coll on tho previous ovoning, lie unlocked the coll door at seven a.m., but did not then notice any unusual smell. Ho found the deceosed lying on his piank bed, unconscious. Having given him somo wator, witness looked round and found that tho ventilatory had been coverod up with bags, on which tho man had been working. As the deceased was unable to swallow, witness sent for tfco doctor. Witness did notice a "sulphury smell in. tho cell, but it was not very pronouncod Ho had known a prisoner to stop up his ventilators, but without producing insensibility. Such a matter would be reported. Anothor prisoner in the cell immediately abovo tho desoased'a was found insensible on the same morning. The medical evidence showed tlmt death was duo to suffocation from inhalations of noxious vapour. Captain Knox, in reply to a question, said there was 'no rule forbidding a prisoner to close or open his ventilator. This had boon his experience in three prisons in twenty-two yoars. Mr. John l'oung, engineer in the surveyor's department at the Homo Office, said lie thoroughly examined tho heating apparatus at tho prison in Juno last, and found it to be in a satisfactory state for the coming winter. A" a result of his investigations since this occurrence, however, ho was of opinion that thero woro two defects in the furnace Hue, which, aided by a back draught, had allowed • noxious vapours to get into tho adjacent cells. The vontilators in tho deceased's cells being closed would cause an accumulation of tin vapours there. Ho had never known a back draught to occur in tho furnaco fluo before. Tho governor elicited from two night watchmen a statement to the effect that tho slightest noise could bo heard throughout the prison; a prisoner's cough would ring from ono end of the prison to tho other. The jury, after a long inquiry, returned a verdict of "Accidental death," and added a rider " that the diseased aggravated the action of tho fumes by blocking up tho ventilators."