“WHAT A VERDICT!”

Taranaki Daily News, 31 May 1935, Page 12

“WHAT A VERDICT!”

I I OUTBURST' BY A FATHER. GIRL KILLED BY LORRY. “What a verdict!” exclaimed the father of a girl on whom an inquest was held at Sheffield recently, reports the Daily Telegraph. The girls, Dorothy Smith, aged seven, of Barber Road, and Eileen Smedley, 10, of Beehive Road, were killed by an unattended lorry which ran down a hill. The jury announced a verdict of acci-, dental death,” with a' rider that the likely cause of the lorry running away was interference by small boys. The coroner, Mr. J. Kenyon Parker, said Mr. Smith was naturally upset, but he had. no right to make that remark. If he did it again he would have to leave the court. .. . Mr. Smith: Why let the driver go free? Later, when the coroner asked the jurymen if they wished to express their sympathy with the relatives of the children, Mr. Smith exclaimed. “We do not need it. The. coroner told Mr. Smith to leave the court. After his departure the coroner said he wanted to see Mr. Smith in his room afterwards. The coroner said it had been definitely ascertained that the lorry had been in-

terfered with by an 11-year-old boy after it had been left at the kerb. 'Die boy deserved punishment, but he did not think the jury could bring in a criminal verdict of manslaughter. 1 - Two schoolboys gave evidence that another boy jumped on to the lorry and did something near the driver’s seat.

,They heard a click, and the lorry moved forward. They all then ran away. ( Summing-up, the coroner said the 11-yeir-old boy was the youngest of the party. The other boys should have tried to stop him. He would probably be brought before the magistrates on a charge under the Road Act.