BOY'S TRAGIC FATE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19730, 1 September 1927, Page 11

BOY'S TRAGIC FATE.

STRANGLED BY ROPE. ACCIDENT IN CYCLE SHED. [uv TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] CHRISTCHURCH, Wednesday. An inquest was held to-day concerning the tragic death of Val Vincent Armstrong, aged 15, the youngest son of Mr. H. T. Armstrong, M.P. The boy was found by his mother late yesterday afternoon suspended bv his neck from a wall of the bicycle slied at his father's residence. Sydney William Armstrong, brother of deceased, said he heard his mother calling from the bicycle shed. He went to the shed and found her holding his brother up by his legs to loosen the rope. Ho was hanging by the rope to the wall, where there were two small nails. The frame of a bicycle was hanging from the roof. A box had been moved out so as to be under the bicycle, as if the boy had tried to be nearer to reach it. The wound underneath the box was uneven. Mrs. Armstrong lifted the boy up while witness, slid the rope off his brother's neck. It slid off quite easily. Witness had to untie or cut no knots at all. The' rope fell off as though it had been looped over the- nail. The rope was not usually kept in the slied. There was no special reason about deceased's health that might have made his mother anxious. There was one tight baud of rope round his brother's neck and a loose one. The Coroner, Mr. H. A. Young, S.M.: If anybody had been going to commit suicide they would have tied the rope to (lie rafters. Sergeant MacXamara: I should think so, sir. The coroner returned a verdict of accidental death, resulting from asphyxia. He said it seemed that deceased, who had always been bright and cheerful, was reaching up to the ceiling when he slipped on the box and, by some extraordinary combination of circumstances, the rope became coiled round his neck. He was sure they would all sympathise with Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong.