HOSPITAL DEATH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23615, 27 March 1940, Page 6

HOSPITAL DEATH

KILLING CHARGE ' '■ ALLEGED POSE AS DOCTOR ELDERLY MAN FOR TRIAL [from our own* correspondent] LONDON, March i' Andrew John Gibson, aged 72, 0 f Liverpool, was at Burslem (Staffs) Police Court charged with unlawfully killing Gladys Ada Elizabeth Higgi n . bottam. There were also charges against him of giving false death certificates,' of forging death certificates, of uttering the forged certificates, and of obtaining money by false pretences. . When Gibson's name was called the » defendant said: "My proper name is Harry Cecil Rutherford Darling." Mr. Maurice Crump, for the prosecution, said that. Gibson obtained the position of locum tenens to the resident mev-ical officer at Stoke-on-Trent City" . Maternity Hospital, representing himself to be Harry Cecil Rutherford Darling, who was, .in fact, a registered medical practitioner practising i n Sydney. Dr. H. C. R. Darling, who belongs to Invercargill, did brilliantly as a student at University College Hospital. After considerable experience ha left London for Sydney in 1914. Statements by Defendant Mr. Crump proceeded: On December 20 Mrs. Higgin bottam was admitted to the City Maternity Hospital. The defendant, who was acting as resident medical officer, told one of the sisters that it was a serious case, but he did not appear to have made any examination. Mrs. Higginbottarn died early the next morning without having seen a medical man at all. After his detention the defendant told Chief-Inspector Hobson two things —first, "I was not qualified to issue a > death certificate"; and, secondly, "j knew 1 was not qualified, but. nevertheless, I have the necessary skill and knowledge." When charged with the other offences he said he was not guilty in each case. i. Labourer and Postal Sorter Inspector Thomas Sullivan, of Liverpool, said he had known the defendant since November, 1935, as Arthur John Gibson. He had worked as a temporary post office sorter, a labourer, ana manager of a herbalist's business. Crossexamined, the witness said that he had known him use the name of Harry Cecil Darling, and lie was married in that name. , Alderman W! H. Kemp, a chemist. . chairman of the Health and Hospital Committee of Stoke City 'Council in September, 1939, gave evidence that the defendant told him he was a gynaecologist. He knew him as Dr. Darling. Dr. Arthur Hancock, the resident medical officer at Stoke-on-Trent, gave evidence that in October, 1939, Aiderman Kemp recommended a locum tenens to him and instructed him to write to this person. He received a reply signed H. C. R. Darling, and he handed over his duties to the defendant at the hospital on November 23. All the Charges Denied Inspector Hobson said that the defendant had stated, "I am saying nothing further until J know what you intgjid to do. I shall not admit anything. \ou will have to prove that 1 am not a medical man, and if 1 go before a Judge and jury 1 have a sporting chance on certain technical matters. The man in the street might believe,,, ordinary facts, but a Judge will require more than that." When the 12 charges were read the defendant said that he was not guiltj of any of them. He applied for a commission to be appointed to take evidence from Australia, which, he said, would establish the legality of his actions. The stipendiary said that there was no power to take evidence on commission. He was committed for trial at the next Stafford Assizes. An application for bail was refused.