MURDER CHARGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22351, 24 February 1936, Page 12

MURDER CHARGE

jVVIFE'S FATAL ILLNESS MEDICAL MEN'S OPINIONS " VERONAL POISONING " DEMONSTRATIONS IN COURT The trial of Eric Mareo, musician, aged 44, who is charged with the murder of his wife, Thelma Clarice Mareo, was continued for two hours on Saturday morning before Mr. Justice Fair and a jury iu the Supreme Court. It is alleged that Mrs. Marco's death was caused by an overdose of veronal administered by her husband. Tho attendance of the public was small. The morning was chiefly occupied with the cross-examination and re-examina-tion of Dr. W. Gilmour, pathologist at the Auckland Hospital, who first entered the witness box at 11.45 a.m. on Friday. He concluded his evidence at 11.25 a.m. on Saturday. He reiterated his belief that Mrs. Mareo died of veronal poisoning and that she must have had about 100 grains of it. His evidence was substantially corroborated by Dr. E. B. Gunson. Recalled witnesses gave demonstrations of quantities of milk which they said had been in a cup on the Saturday evening prior to Mrs. Mar.eo's death. The Crown case is being presented by Mr. A.' H. Johnstone, K.C., and Mr. ,V. N. Hubble, and tho defence is being conducted by Mr. H. F. O'Leary, K.C., with Mr. T. Henry and Mr. K. C. Aekins. / Experiments With Cups When the Court resumed His Honor said the jury had intimated that they would like Graham Mareo and Miss Stark recalled to give a demonstration of the quantities of milk they believed to be in the cup before and after it was offered to Mrs. Mareo. His Honor directed that this should be done, and said that four cups would be required for the experiment. Graham Mareo, recalled, filled two cups, one to show the amount of milk in the cup as it was brought in for Mrs. Mareo, and the other to show the amount remaining after the attempts to give the milk ceased. "It won't bo very accurate," said witness, "because I did not notice any appreciable differThe cups were handed round and examined closely by members of the jury, several of whom made measurements with a foot ruler. A similar procedure was then followed •with the witness Freda Stark. The foreman took the opportunity of asking her to demonstrate the quantity of water used with the sal volatile given to Mrs. Mareo. Poison Cases Quoted Mr. O'Leary continued his crossexamination of Dr. W. Gilmour, who made the post-mortem examination of Mrs. Mareo's body. Witness said he had quoted from Sir William Wilcox to show the quantities one might expect to recover in cases of death due to veronal poisoning. There were 17 cases quoted. Mr. O'Leary: What is the lowest quantity recorded ?—One-fifth of a grain /found after death. In that case the stomach only was examined. Go on to the next lowest? —The next is 1.12 grains, from liver, kidney, stomach and contents. What is the largest quantity found? r—Thd largest is 166 grains. r ' So that those cases do not, and cannot, tell us how much veronal was taken?— From the data here you could not tell the amount of dose taken. You catf assume it was more than that recovered?— Clearly. They do not tell us how long after taking veronal death occurred?—No, except in one case. Minimum Fatal Dose His Honor: What was the time in that-case?—About 48 hours. Witness agreed that 40 hours would he a fairly accurate approximation of the time Mrs. Mareo lived after taking a dose on Saturday night. Dr. Gilmour was questioned concerning a statement by Sir William Wilcox "that the continuous use of drugs of the barbituric acid group leads to the formation of a definite addiction to the drug in question." Mr. O'Leary: It is said that a fatal dose might be 10 and might be 50 grains? —Cases of death have been recorded after the taking of even such a small dose of veronal as ten grains, although in such cases probably other factors were present, and death was not entirely due to the drug. In a healthy adult it may be assumed that about 50 grains represents an average minimum fatal dose. Another statement was that "the margin between a therapeutic dose and a toxic dose is slhall." The therapeutic dose is a medicinal dose of five to ten grains?— Yes. And a toxic dose is a poisonous dose, but ;not necessarily a fatal dose ?—Yes. Drugs and Suicide It is stated that "the comnwn termination of continued addiction is suicide, usually brought on by an overdose?" —That is his view. The actual figures available as to the numbers of suicides in Great Britain are in the British Medical Journal and it is shown that veronal occupies seventh or eighth placfe as a cause of suicide by poison. But the common termination of addiction is suicide?—l think it may bo taken as a general statement that addiets to drugs usually end by suicide. Mr. Johnstone (rc-examming): ihe evidence shows that water, sal volatile and milk wero given to Mrs. Mareo. What opinion would you form on that information ? —o,f these three the milk alone would be a suitable medium m which to give veronal. Owing to its insolubility it- would be impossible' to give it iii cold water. Even in three teaspoonsful of sal volatile it would be impossibe to give a very large dose. On the- "other hand, in hot milk it is readily soluble and its presence is disguised by the colour of the milk. Range of Fatal Dose Do you say that the final dose was necessarily on Saturday night?—On tho evidence available it is impossiblo to 6ay that it was the last dose. It may have been, or there may have been some given later?— Yes. I express no opinion one way or tho other. You put the preponderance of deaths |>y veronal as misadventure, suicide and jiiurder. Is that true of veronal only ? No; it is probably true of all poisons. As to the rango of the fatal dose of veronal, is that confined to veronal? — .. No. The range, of course, is wider than in the case of those drugs whero a small dose is a fatal dose. . ; i And we may take it that people have ; taken very large doses of deadly poisons and recovered? —Yes. That applies to all poisons. 'j It was put to you that Squires warns < against giving veronal in milk. Do you j know of any other place in literature 1 where that warning is given?—No, I j don't know of any other book. ] Is it backed by any sort of authority? —No. And, of course, it is not backed c by experience. Giving veronal in milk is ; a common procedure. r

You said the final dose must have been given shortly before she went to sleep?—l think my point was that it 1 must have been given within half an 5 hour of her going to sleep. 1 based that on the fact that she was already under the influence of veronal, her stomach was empty, and tho veronal was probably given in solution and so would be absorbed with great rapidity. What ground do you say there is for the assumption as to the three doses taken P —lt is impossible to give an exact quantity. We know that she was out of bed in a confused state on the , Saturday morning. That may have been 3 duo to a dose of veronal on the Friday 3 night from which she was recovering. 1 Such a period and such symptoms on waking would suggest more than a 3 therapeutic dose. The dose on Saturday • morning kept her sound asleep for about i 13 hours. By the end of a.other two 1 or three hours she was only partially „ recovered, indicating again more than a therapeutic dose. i " Uncomplicated Poisoning " Witness said it was' possible that b greater quantities might have been b taken than was stated in tho evidence. He considered the two liquid samples j collected were of the utmost importance, and it was partly from them that he ' reached his conclusions. He took into 1 account also the veronal recovered from t the various organs and the fact that 3 Mrs.. Mareo died of uncomplicated 1 veronal poisoning. The events of the . Saturday night were not consistent , with the automatic taking of veronal. It was quite clear that Mrs. Mareo 1 would have been incapable of crushing 5 up the tablets at that time, or of swallowing them individually and taking * a drink to wash them down. It would be impossible, witness said, r to dissolve a fatal dose of veronal or anything approaching it in three tea- | spoonsful of sal volatile. Mr. Johnstone: Of what in your opinion did Mrs. Mareo die?—ln my opinion she died of veronal poisoning. What quantity did she have?—ln my , opinion she must have had about 100 . grains. ' His Honor asked the witness to ex- | periment with the solubility of veronal in three teaspoonfuls of sal volatile and 1 in the sal volatile in the half a glass ' of water and to make the results known to the Court. In answer to the foreman of the jury, Dr. Gilmour said that his postmortem examination did not disclose any cause that would explain the pains that Mrs. Mareo complained of before her death. Experiments by Analyst Details of the results of his experiments regarding the solubility of veronal were given by Kenneth Massey Griffin, Go vernment analyst at Auckland. These details had been asked for following his evidence earlier in the trial. Mr. Griffin said he had crushed a number of fivegrain tablets and carried out two different sets' of experiments. First he had put the tablets in an enamel vessel with milk, heating it and stirring with a teaspoon. Six tablets in half a cup of milk were dissolved in two minutes. Six tablets in a full cup of milk took about the same time to dissolve. Ten tablets in half a cup of milk took three minutes to dissolve and it was the same with a full cup of milk. In the other set of experiments Mr. Griffin said he had heated the milk separately for one minute and had stirred the milk on to the powder. To dissolve six tablets with half a cup of miilk by this method took three and ahalf minutes, including the time taken to crush the tablets, about half a minute; six in a full cup three minutes; ten in half a cup, minutes; and ten in the full cup, 3J minutes. Mr. O'Leary (cross-examining): I take it that it would take very much longer to dissolve if not crushed?— Not so very much longer the first way I did it. Another Doctor Called Dr. E. B. Gunson was the next witness called. He said he had perused Dr. Gilmour's report of the post-mortem examination and the analyst's report and he had heard the evidence on symptoms. He had formed the opinion that death was due to veronal poisoning and that it had been administered on more than one occasion. Mr. Johnstone: Why have you come to that conclusion?— From the symptoms. On the Saturday morning she was described to be in a condition of muscular inco-ordination, mentally confused and when she was put back to bed she went off to sleep. That condition is common in patients who are recovering from doses of veronal larger than a therapeutical dose. When would you say the dose had been taken?— Probably on the Friday night. It seemed, said witness, that she would have had another on the Saturday morning and a further dose on the Saturday night before she went off to sleep. Witness had formed the opinion that she had probably had about 100 grains. At the conclusion of Dr. Gunson's evidence the Court was adjourned until 10 o'clock this morning.