‘ABSOLUTE CALLOUSNESS’

Taranaki Daily News, 20 July 1929, Page 15

‘ABSOLUTE CALLOUSNESS’

CORONER’S STERN COMMENT GIRL DIES IN MATERNITY HOME, ’ CRITICISM OF THE EVIDENCE. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Napier, Last Night. "It is a long time since I have heard evidence of such absolute callousness : U and neglect. Perhaps it is because I ; ' have not been told the truth. The whole circumstances are highly suspicious. .;- There is not only a conspiracy of sil-ky,: ence but a conspiracy of lies.” ■ With these remarks the district coroner, Mr. A. M. Mowlam, S.M., concluded a stern criticism of the evidence given at an inquest in Napier to-day into ‘ the circumstances that led to the death of Eileen Carrol Hepburn in the’Napier Hospital on June 7. A formal verdict was returned thCMrdeath was due to heart failure following lung and abdominal trouble contribated to by circumstances that pointed r to criminal interference. p

When criticising the evidence tho coroner described it as a mass of inconsistency. He refused to believe that a man should know that his stepdaughter was taken away from him in Gisborne in a bad state of health and take no further interest in her until-in-formed by telegram 26 days later that she was in hospital at Napier seriously ill, and that he should go to her bedside and not then be interested enough to ask how she came to be there and what was the matter with her. I Evidence showed that a party brought the girl to Napier and took her to Nurse Pratt’s house, described as a maternity home. Conflicting evidence was given as to who slept with the girl on the night of her arrival at Nurse Pratt’s, the girl’s aunt or another woman named Patterson. The woman Patterson took the girl to a doctor under the name of Hudson. Two doctors attended her and she was sent to the hospital after giving birth to a seven-months child. At the hospital she gave the name of Hudson, and it was not until two days before her death that her true identity was revealed by her aunt. Even when told she was dying th® girl refused to reveal anything except that a man was responsible for her condition. Three doctors said in evidence that there was no doubt there had been criminal interference. The evidence of other witnesses was of a most unsatisfactory nature.