COUNTRY HOUSE TRAGEDY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19616, 21 October 1925, Page 13

COUNTRY HOUSE TRAGEDY.

MURDER OF DR W. C. SWAI’NE. (Kbom Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, August 20. Dr Walter Charles Swayne, a well-known West of England obstetric surgeon, who commanded a battery of the New Zealand Artillery at Salisbury Plains towards the end of the war, has met his death in very tragic circumstances. He was found shot in the house of his son-in-law, Mr Richard Louis Wreford Brown, in the village of Sellach, near Ross, Hereford, in the early morning, and he died later in the day. At the inquest, held on the lawn of the house where the tragedy occurred, Mr Richard Swayne, son of the deceased, told of a desperate struggle with his brother-in-law. Witness explained that Mr Wreford Brown was a retired lieutenant of the Ist Welsh Guards, and had married witness’s sister in 1919. Witness came on a visit to his sister at Sidonia, on August 10. The Coroner; During that time did anything happen to cause your brother-in-law to send for Dr Swayne?—lt was Mr Wreford Brown’s mother who insisted, at my sister’s request, that Dr Swayne should be sent for to see my brother-in-law. Mr Wreford Brown’s mother, who lives six or seven miles away, met Dr Swayne with her motor car at Ross, and brought them to Sidonia, where they all spent the evening together. Everything was harmonious, and no danger was thought- of. “I went off to sleep, but about half-past one, I think, I was roused by the sound of two shots and a scream from my sister,'' said the witness. “I went into their room. The room was in darkness, but I could see my brother-in-law against the window flourishing a revolver in his hand. Ho was shouting, and said, ‘The room is full of gas; they are trying to gas me.’ As a matter of fact, there was no gas in the house. He fired two more shots. These I found afterwards, had been fired at the ceiling, which bore two bullet marks. As he fired I lay down on the floor and tried to crawl towards him. Then he jumped off an ottoman by the window towards the door. I felt my sister, getting under the bed.” Asked by the Coroner if there were any children in the room, witness said the youngest boy was in a cot in the corner. ‘‘Seeing my sister was safe,” witness said, “I ran into my room next door to get a weapon of some sort. I took hold of my water jug full of water for that purpose, and came out, expecting to meet my brother-in-law emerging from his room. He had gone, however, into my father’s room, which is on the same landing. I heard my father tell him to go back to bed. but my brother-in-law shouted again that they were gassing him ” GASSED AT CAMwxuU. Mr Swayne said his brother-in-law- was invalided from the army in 1919 suffering from gas poisoning from the Battle of Cambrai. “My father told him he was talking nonsense, and that he ought to go back to bed. My brother-in-law said, ‘ I am determined to get to the bottom of this. Stand back a yard, or I fire.’ I heard no movement, and almost simultaneously my brother-in-law fired two shots. I heard my father fall to the floor, and I ran into the room. It was m complete darkness, and, feeling for rayfather I found him lying by the dressingtable. A g I touched him, he said ‘ls that you, Tim? lam hit in the stomach.’ 1 let go of my father, and, trying to find my brother-in-law by groping, I caught hold of one of his arms and hit out at where X judged him to be. He fell down in the corner and I fell on top of him and caught him by the throat with my left hand and tried to find his hand with the revolver in with my right. I could not feel the revolver, so, still lying on top of him, I held him by the throat and called for my sister. She made no reply. My brother-in-law struggled a little, but soon became very exhausted, and I shouted out again to my sister that I was all right, and asked her to bring a light. VERDICT OP MURDER. “She came. My father was groaning on the floor, and I told my sister to go and get help. She ran downstairs and I heard the sound of breaking glass. Presently she returned with the two Mr Napiers, who are neighbours. Mr Dloyd Napier and Mrs Wreford Brown went to my father's assistance, and when Mr George Napier same in ,1 asked him to see if my brother-in-law still had the revlover. My hrothcr-in-law there upon said, ‘No.’ I was still lying on top of him, and he hold up his hands, which wore empty.” Mr Lloyd H. Napier, retired Indian Forest official, living at Sellach, said that when he reached Sidonia, Dr Swayne told him he was in awful agony, and asked if anyone else was hit. When witness said, 'No,’ D: Swayne said, ‘Thank God.’ Mr George O Napier said he found a revolver _in Mr Wreford Brown’s pyjamas, next to his body Dr A. L. B. Green, of Ross, said when he went to render medical aid, Dr Swayne told him that the second shot was not aimed. Dr Swayne was suffering from tw T o bullet wounds one in the abdomen and the other at the top of the left thigh. Death was due to internal hemorrhage caused by the bullet wound in the abdomen. Police-Superintendent Broad said Mr Wreford Brown said to him. “They were trying to poison me. I told Dr Swayne to step back a yard, and as he did do so I fired to wound him, not to kill* A second revolver was found in the pocket of the coat which Mr Wreford Brown was wearing the evening before the tragedy. The Coroner said that at the assize-a evidence would certainly he put forward that Mr Wreford Brown was insane. The jury returned a verdict of murder against Richard Louis Wreford Brown, and added a rider that the state of his mind should be in(juirsd into.