INQUEST.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 8792, 30 April 1890, Page 4

INQUEST.

An inquest was held at Caversham yeiterdsy loming, beforo Mr B. H. Carew, coroner, and a jury f six, on the body of Leonard Chitty, who hanged imself in a Bhed close to his house iv Lang street, hversham, on Monday morning. Mr S. M'Cracken -as choaon foreman of the jury. Harriet Chitty, wife of deceased, deposed thafc her usband was born in Chittingfold, Surrey, iv 1820, nd had been 27 years in the colony. His occupaion waß tbat of a oirrier, but for about 14 years past c had done very little work. They had beeu married bout 40 years, and during all that time she never new him to be sick. His mind, howrer, had not beeu right for a long time; ir the last nine or ten weeks ho was very !Btleas at nights, and often got up and went utside, and slammed the doors very much. He ould abuse witness, and if no one hoard him lie ; ould afterwards deny that he had abused her, but retx it anyone did hear him he would deny it at , mes. He Bald on Saturday fchafc he would finish . itness, and that she had no time to repent. Wit- • ess could not tell what led him to say tbafc. There , ad been a little disturbance lately in fche hou6o. , 'itness had worked for tho last 14 yeara and kept , Im, and when she told him he should do a little lie ( it Iv a bad temper. Aboufc nine weeks ago he , ent away, and did not return until laat Thursday, ( ccepting one timo when he came baok on Saturday , ight, going away again by the half-paßfc 4 o'clock 1 ainonMonday. Hedid nofctellwitness whafche was _ ling. Whendeceasedandwifcnesswereinfchekifcchen c 7 themselves he would threaten her with his knife . ien On Thursday night he refused to sleep in his _, id, and went out into the shed, and lay down on r re "stone floor, sleeping there for the night. On j•iday night he went lo his bedroom and nailed tbe t ior, witness thought, so fchafc no one could get in. .■ a then took (the clothes off the bed, and slept on c floor. On Saturday night he slept on tho bed. l Sunday morning witness missed the blankets, .; t did not put othen on, simply leaving the bed S th the counterpanes on. She had not seen the inkets since. From the timo ho came home he v .3 abusing witneas; siie did not know bis reason ■ doing so. For a long time past he had taken great dislike to his family, she was ry to say. On Sunday he locked tho front door, i cirricd the key about with him. Ho would not ;e his me.-ila with the family for fche last three or r. ir diiys. bufc went to the table after they were B Ished. Ho used to t..lk strangely, and would tell d< wife lhat she favoured tho children, that she sl Lild make things for them tbat she would not & ke for him; but witneßß did not dn tbat out of illI, but becHtise the thought fchat the members of family who were working Bhould receive more sntion than a man who sat bythe lire dolngnot.li.On Monday he got up at 6, and went down the h: deu, although breakfast.was ready when he went fl . Wituess and her son were sitting at l,i, X '„''?? V 0 ?" ue '" with a Pick, and el who had broken it. Her son said, '• I did not s: ik it, but I used it." With that deceased ruised N i the air as if to strike bcr sou with It. Witness iv rped from her chair and caught the pick ip. hr-r a, and her son then put him outside the gate, arking, "I will let peoplo hear what you have t° 77J y' Her EOn theu went away: 'bat was „ nt- /. 10 a in. A fow minutes afterwards deceased b( ie in and demanded the meat chopper, and au less threw it outside for him ; she was sfrnld to sk lit into his hands She sa dto him (hafc he t0 v iiPifc be in hii right, mind, and lhat ehe wou'd ,„, li a doctor to him. In which lie replied that she c d fetch 10 doctors if eho liked. Ho said no — c, as iJr6 M'lvor (hen cmna In. He took p r up out of the cupboard uni went into the j oom, but did nofc stiiy thero long. When he i c out he held the cup t.WHrds Mra M'lvor, tell- a i_ U u 6me" wlmt w"3 in jt- Mrß M'lvor re- 1 ked that it waa laudanum. He said nothing t ber, but went ont, and witness thought ho j red the outhouse. Mrs M'lvorstopped lor some t

________ _.__. py |w ,||.|,,.H1,.!,. I, jt time. She once asked witness if deceased would do anything to himself, but witness replied that she tliought he would not. Ho had said once or twice when he was in any way upset tbat ho would jump into the sea, but witness did not think he would do anything rash. After Mrs M'lvor left witness went to the shed door and listened, but hearing no movem 6?} B_! we _1.. t0 the gate and called Mr William lodd. She told him her husband had threatened to poison himself, and asked him to go to tbe Bhed and look in at the window to see what ber husband was doing. Mr Todd went to the shed door, but as t waß fastened he burst it in.' Witness was standing by Mr Todd when the door was opened, and sho then saw her husband hanging inside. Mr Todd cut the rope. When deceased Bhowed the cup of laudanum to Mrs M'lvor witness certainly w-as a little alarmed, but she did not think he would take the poison. To Sergeant-major .Ramsay: The bottlo, labelled " poison," witness saw last Thursday, and threw it out. There were only a few drops in It. Dr Teevan stated that about half-past 10 o'clock on Monday morning ho got a telephone message to go loCaverelum. He went out as soon as possible, and at 25 minutes to 12 o'clock he arrived at deceased's house, and fonnd him in the Bhed, lying on his back. He was pulseless, and breathing had ceased. Witneßi observed a brownish mark running obliquely round tha neck. He examined the neck, but found neither fracture nor dislocation. It was not usual in cases of suicidal hauging that the neck should be broken. Witness found Borne laudanum in a cup in tho shed. He believed that death was due to asphyxia, caused by pressure of tbe rope on tho windpipe and on tbegreat vessels of the neck, producing congestion of the lungj and brain. From the evidence given by Mrs ChHty, witness was of opinion that deceased's mind wns not sound. To Sergeant-major Bamsay: If deceased had taken the three teaspoonfuls of laudanum he would havo had plenty time to make arrangements for hanging himself. He would not become unconscious for perhaps balf-an-hour afterwards. William Todd, dairyman, residing at Clark street, Caversham, depoted that he was called by Mrs Chitty about 10 o'clock on Monday morning. She asked him to. look in the shed for Mr Chitty. Witness went to the shed nud found it locked. Mrs Chitty was with him. She looked in at the window and said " Oh, he lins a rope round his neck." Sho seemed astoiuMied ami soared wheu she said this. Wituess then burst in the door and cut deceased down. There was a bucket, bottom upwards, near deceased's feet, which were hanging just over its edge, and about a foot or a little more from the ground. Witness bad known deceased for a long number n/ years. He looked on him asaqulet man, butof late wituess had heard that his mind was not right. Robert Chitty, son of deceased, said he was a bootmaker by occupation Of late tbe family matters bad not been vtry pleasant, as deceased was so disagreeable. He showed it by growling and cursing. In witness' opinion, deceased knew what he was doing. He would not speak to witness, except when be was cursing at him. On Monday morning deceased threatened to strike witness with a pick, but witness put him out oa the street, saying that if ho used bad language the people would hear him, and witnesß would then have him charged with using obscene language. He camo Inside again and got a billhook, with which he walked about the place.threateuing that he would do for his wife and witness, and that the roj.e would do for himself. Witness certainly thought it wae dangerous to leavo deceased at home, but he was compelled to go to his work. Henry Pickford, chemist at Caversham, stated that he knew the deceased well. flcceaied bought some laudanum from him on Monday, saying it was for dysentery or diarrhcoa. Witness gave him three drachms (180 drops), and told bim to take 80 drops as a dose two or three times a day. Witness noticed nothing unusual about him. To Sergeant-major Ramsay: Three drachms would do no injury to a man. Any person not used to taking it would not bo poisoned if tbey took even nine or ten drachms. Constable Groves aave evidenco as to finding the body of deceased in the Bhed. The Coroner said that that was all the evidenco. It seemed to bim that the case was a most determined ono of telf-destruotion. The evidence was clear on the point that tho famllyhad not been leading a happy life lately; whether It was deceased's fault or tbe fault of others of courso was hard to determine. From the evidence that was before the jury, however, it seemed that deceased must have be6n beyond himself, and exceedingly unhappy. There was no doubt that besides hanging himself he had takeu landanura.but he (the coroner) thought deceased could not have died from its elfectß; possibly he took It thinking it would lessen tho pain consequent on the rash deed he afterwards committed. The jury returned a verdict to the effect tbat deceased killed himself by hanging while of unsound mind.