ACQUITTAL OF CHEMIST

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19698, 2 August 1938, Page 5

ACQUITTAL OF CHEMIST

MANSLAUGHTER CHARGE

DEATH OF BROTHERS

SYDNEV July 29

At the quarter sessions, Walter Peck, chemist and dispenser, of the Burwood Friendly Societies' dispensary, was acquitted of the manslaughter of two brothers, James Edward Cobban, aged 15, and James Cobban, aged 13. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty without hearing counsels' addresses or the judge's summing-up. The two boys died in a private hospital in Burwood on May 10 and May 11 respectively. The verdict a the inquest was that the deaths were due to the effects of a deadly drug known as paraldehyde, administered to nn excessive amount.

The evidence at the trial to-day disclosed that Peck dispensed ounces instead of drachms.

Peck admitted he made a mistake in reading the doctor's prescription. He told the jury he would regret it all his life. He deeply deplored the boys' death and their parents' anguish. Accused attributed his mistake to worry and fear of a recurrence of cancer in the throat from which he had supposedly been cured.

Both boys became ill after taking medicine as a'preliminary to an operation for the removal of their tonsils. A doctor gave the parents a prescription which contained paraldehyde. The medicine was made up by a chemist, and was given to the boys by a nurse at the hospital.