A DOCTOR’S CRIME.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19981, 24 December 1926, Page 25

A DOCTOR’S CRIME.

MURDER OF MOTHER. FOLLOWED BY SUICIDE. A POIGNANT TRAGEDY. (Fhom Ocb Own Coebespondent.) SYDNEY, December 16. One of the most poignant tragedies that have occurred in Sydney of recent years was enacted in the early hours of last Sunday morning in a brilliant young doctor's residence at Dulwich Hill, a suburb of this city. Mother and son, the former bed-ridden for four years and the other a victim of depression, were found dead. Mrs Sarah Kesicr Paling, aged 59 years, was lying dead on a bed, and the body of her son. Dr John Mart Anthony Paling, 30 years of age, was on the floor. Police reports indicated that the son killed his mother by injections of poison from a hypodermic noodle, and then drank poison himself. Early on Saturday evening Dr Paling, in conversation with several friends, also doctors, at his home, remarked that he had been feeling very depressed, and that things would have to come to an end. At 1.45 a.m. the next morning Dr Northcote, one of the friends to whom the remark had been made, was called by telephone to Dr Paling’s home by one of two sisters named Payton, relatives of Dr Paling and his mother, who had been living with the last-named for several years. Miss Payton told Dr Northcote by telephone that Dr Paling had been behaving curiously, and that ho had disappeared. The door leading to Mrs Paling’s room, Miss Payton added, was locked. Dr Northcote hurried to Dulwich Hill, and on arrival at Dr Paling’s residence gained admittance to the locked bedroom by climbing through a window. Mrs Paling, who was an invalid and suffered from attacks of melancholia, was dead on the bed, and Dr Paling was lying on the floor, also dead. In Mrs Paling’s arm were two broken needles, by means of which hydrocyanic acid had been injected into her body. There was evidence that Dr Paling had taken some of the same poison, and empty phials were on the floor near the bed. Miss Payton told the police that the family went to bed at half-past nine on Saturday evening. Waking later, she heard noises, and tiptoeing out, saw Dr Paling moving restlessly through the house in pyjamas and dressing gown. Becoming alarmed, it was then that she telephoned Dr Northcote. Dr Paling had a brilliant career at Sydney University, where he was a fellow student of the late Professor Irvine Hunter, cut off short in a splendid career by a sickness in London last year. Both entered the University in 1914 from the same school. He came out higher in their early examinations than Professor Hunter. Ho identified himself with University activities. He did important research ivork on goitre in Loudon after graduation, and owing to the sudden illness of his mother (which brought hioi hack), his way to the highest medical degrees in London was undoubtedly stopped. Ho was recognised as one of the ablest of the young physicians of Sydney. How carefully he planned .o relieve his mother from her suffering and to follow her to loath could be judg’d from the fact that he had arranged all bis personal papers for examination by bis solicitors. He bad paid all bis bills, down to the smallest household item.