"I WANTED TO KILL HIM"

NZ Truth, Issue 1198, 15 November 1928, Page 3

"I WANTED TO KILL HIM"

Imbecile's Diabolical Act At The

Nelson Asylum

SAD STORY OF MENTAL PATIENT

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Nelson Representative.)

" / didn't like him. He was no good. I wanted to kill him." In these Worth Frederick King, a thirteen-year'old Aop who is an inmate of the Nelson Mental Hospital, calmly told horo he killed a fellow boy patient, Henry James McCarthy by giving him a cup of formalin to drink'

■THE story was made public when 1 Magistrate T. E. Maunsell presided

over an inquest held at the institution recently. After hearing' all the evidence the coroner brought m a verdict relieving all concerned of any blame m the tragic occurrence.

Although he is a mental patient the boy responsible for poisoning one of his fellow-inmates carefully worked out a scheme which he thought would not only get rid of a boy whom he did not like, but would also involve a nurse who had incurred his disfavor.

The bottle of formalin from which the poisonous draught was poured was kept m a locked box-room upstairs, and at the time of the occurrence (Thursday morning last) only two nurses had keys of the room. One of them was the night nurse against whom the boy had a grudge and the other nurse was on day duty which

Dr. Jeffreys was recalled and stated that the boy responsible was untruthful and was a moral imbecile. He was iin epileptic imbecile, but had no sense of right and wrong.

The boy who gave the poison to the deceased was then called before tne coroner. He looked more than his 13 years and possessed a debased .type of face. His evidence was given very disjointedly, m ungrammatical English and with long pauses between each sentence.

Questions had to be asked several times before he would answer them. He said: "I got out of bed at a quarter to* six: I found a key on the table m the dining-room. I went up to the basin-room. I gave him poison stuff. Got that from the basin-room. - It was m a big, round bottle. I knew it was poison. I knew it was going to kill. I gave it to him because I did not like him. I have been told not to touch the