STABBED BY A FRIEND.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 March 1924, Page 6

STABBED BY A FRIEND.

JURY'S STRANGE VERDICT. By Telegraph—Press Asfin.—Copyright. London, Feb. 20. An inquest was held on Edward Murphy, a docker, residing at Poplar, who died of a wound in the abdomen caused by a butcher’s knife and inflicted during a quarrel with a former friend named William Parry.

The jury recorded a verdict of “ murder, done unintentionally on the >pur of the moment.” The coroner refused to accept the verdict, saying that murder could not be unintentional.

The jury then altered its verdict to one of manslaughter, which the coroner accepted, though he disagreed with it.

During the evidence Parry, who was present, shook hands with the widow, and said: “She knows how 1 feel about it.”

When he arrived at the Court after the fight. Parry exclaimed: “Is he really dead? God have mercy on me and poor old Ted. I did it on the spur of the moment. He came bullying me to buy beer. I might have picked up a piece of wood, but it was just my luck it happened to be a knife.”