DRIVEN TO SUICIDE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22504, 22 August 1936, Page 2 (Supplement)

DRIVEN TO SUICIDE

VICTIM OF SCANDAL-MONGERS

Those words of Robbie .Burns: "Man's inhumanity to man"—were brought vividly to mind when the sad story of a girl's suicide was told to the East London coroner, Dr. It. L. Guthrie. Margaret Donovon, aged 111, of Stepney, was bound over on a charge of stealing a ring from another girl last May.

Since then, it was stated, she had been pointed at in the street and her name bandied about by scandalmongers until she grew desperate and took a headlong dive into a 20-feet deep part of Regent's Canal Dock, at Liniehouse.

The girl's father stated that only a few days previously an insurance agent had told him that no fewer than eight people had mentioned to him the fact that the girl had been put on probation. The weekly visits of the probation officer had preyed on his daughter's mind, and most of her girl friends had given her up. Krnest Geerv, who saw Margaret Donovon dive into the water, stated lie threw a lifebelt to her, but she failed to grasp it. Returning a verdict of "Suicide while of unsound mind." the coroner remarked: "Owing to people's conduct, the girl could stand it no longer, and took her own life."