COURT DEMONSTRATION

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21243, 14 October 1940, Page 9

COURT DEMONSTRATION

DISCHARGE OF RIFLE j BOY'S ACCIDENTAL DEATH (By Telegraph.—Special to Times) WELLINGTON. Sunday While an inquest was being held in one of the courtrooms at the Wellington Magistrate’s Court into the death of lan Douglas Rust, aged 16, who died of a riflle wound, shots were tired from a pea-rifle by the police arms expert to demonstrate how such a weapon could be accidentally discharged. Dr. J. A. Loan, a house surgeon at the Wellington Public Hospital, said the boy was conscious when admitted U* the hospital, and told witness he j ;iad struck at a cat with the butt of i :i.e rifle, which discharged when it I hit the ground. Senior-Sergeant G. Kelly said the j rifle that was found with the boy ! was not out of order, but was of a j

type that was. dangerous in the hands of an unskilled person, and for that reason its importation was now prohibited. That the boy had been wounded in the manner that had been described was quite feasible. With the coroner’s permission, witness loaded the rifle with a blank cartridge and discharged it by bumping the cocking piece on the rail of the witness box. He fired the rifle also by pulling the trigger to show that a deeper impression on this cartridge was made by the accidental firing.