BOYS ROLLED BABY OUT OF COT, BATHED IT AND IT DIED

Wanganui Chronicle, 16 December 1949, Page 6

BOYS ROLLED BABY OUT OF COT, BATHED IT AND IT DIED

BLENHEIM. Last Night (PA).— Evidence given at the inquest today into the death on Decernoer 2 of a 51-months-old boy, son of Mr and Mrs Ross Gardiner, of Churchill Street, Blenheim, disclosed that death was due to the irresponsible conduct of two of a neighbour’s children- boys

aged respectively four and a-half and three years. The coroner, Mr E. J. Hill, said that a study of the evidence made it Hear that the two children went into the baby’s room during the mother s absence, and rolled the baby out of the cot on to the floor. This would account for the injuries received by the baby—a bruised ear and fractured skull. The two children then apparently took the baby into the sitting room and rolled it on the floor. Then they got the idea that the baby

needed a bath, and they took it into the bathroom, turned on the hot and cold taps and put the baby into the bath. It received serious scalds. The mother was informed of what was happening by a girl aged 11. and rushed home to find the baby unconscious in the bath. It died soon after admission to hospital. The coroner said that the problem of the boys concerned would have to he seriously considered. It seemed to him to be a case for the Child Welfare Department.