SUPPOSED DEATH PACT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23529, 18 June 1938, Page 23

SUPPOSED DEATH PACT

MAN AND WOMAN POISONED BODIES NOT FOUND FOR THREE DAYS (From Our Own Correspondent) SYDNEY, June 9. Lying dead near a doorway with a broken strap around his neck, the body of George Haywood Duggan, 63 was found in his Thomas street (North Sydney) home. He had died of poisoning three days earlier, but the police believe that simultaneously he tried to hang himself. u , , On a bed near him lay the body or Mrs Irene Ibbotson, 56, Duggan is known to have been infatuated with Mrs Ibbotson. and it is believed that they made a death pact. A cup containing poison was found on the imiei ° f lt th i ß s believed that after Mrs Ibbotson had died, Duggan with the strap around his neck, stood on a box, drank some of the poison, placed the cup carefully on the lintel, and jumped. The strap broke, but the poison killed him , , A 20-year-old parrot, belonging to Mrs Ibbotson. and which Duggan had been minding, was dead in its cage, in the room. Detectives believe that the parrot was also poisoned The bird often said “ Cocky wants a cup of tea. a demand that Duggan never refused. It is thought that when the cockatoo saw Duggan with the fatal cup in his hand, it asked for tea. and the man allowed it to sip the poison Mrs Ibbotson left the flat where she lived with her husband three days before the tragedy was discovered When she failed to return he searched tor her and reported her missing to the Po A°blind pensioner, Norman McWilliam, who had rented a room from Duggan, was first to suspect the tragedy " I returned for some articles I had left, but the house was still shut up." he said “ I asked a painter who was working on the house to look into the bedroom,”