A PRISON TRAGEDY.
PRISONER HANGS HIMSELF IN A CELL.
The Dunedin Gaol was the scene of a distressing tragedy to-day, when a man named William Millar, aged forty, a recent arrival from Scotland, who was arrested last night on a charge of being drunk and incapable, hanged himself with the leather belt he had been wearing. Millar was brought before the magistrate. Mr C. C. Graham, this morning at 10.30, and was remanded for a week for medical treatment, his condition being such as to make it evident that he had been drinking heavily for some time. At twelve o'clock Millar received his dinner in his cell at the prison, and ate the greater part of it. At one o'clock Warder O'Reilly looked into the cell, and found Millar suspended by the neck from a small hook in the wall, about five feet from the ground. The man, who was considerably over five feet high, had fastened himself to the hook by his belt, and deliberately strangled himself.
Apparently the cause of the suicide was the acute depression produced by over-drinking. It is known that Millar had no financial difficulties. So far as is known the man has no friends or relatives in Dunedin. -Evening Star, 28/8/1907.
A TRAGIC END.
SUICIDE IN A CELL.
A man named William Millar, about 40 years of age, hanged himself in a cell at the Dunedin Gaol at midday on August 28. Millar was arrested on Tuesday night on a charge of drunkenness, and was brought before Mr C. C. Graham, S.M., at the Police Court on Wednesday morning, and was remanded for a week for medical treatment. At 12 o'clock Millar received his dinner in his cell, and at 1 o'clock Warder O'Reilly, on looking into the cell, found the unfortunate man suspended by the neck from a small hook in the wall about 5ft high, to which he had fastened ths leather belt he was wearing. Life was quite extinct, and the suicide was evidently of a most deliberate nature.
On Tuesday, 27th about 8.30 p.m., Millar called into the Salvation Array Barrack in Dowling street. He appeared to be very much excited, and, sneaking to an officer of the Army, told him he thought he was going to be smothered that night by two medical men owing to his being a public nuisance. Constable Lopdell's attention was drawn to the man's peculiar behaviour, and after questioning him he came to the conclusion that his condition was serious, and decided to take him to the Police Station and have him locked up. Dr Watt was called in some little time after and prescribed a sleeping draught, after which the deceased spent a fairly good night in the lock-up. There was nothing in his demeanour to indicate that he intended to commit suicide. He was, however, suffering from a delusion, as already stated, that he was going to be suffocated.
The deceased came out to the colony from Paisley about three months ago, and appears to have brought some money with him, and to have since his arrival been getting through it pretty rapidly and to have been drinking to excess. In charging the jury at the inquest, the Coroner said there was no doubt the cause of death was hanging, and evidence showed the man was in an incipient stage of delirium tremens, and not responsible for his actions.
A verdict of suicide while temporally insane was returned, and the followiug rider was added: — "That the jury desires to call the attention of the proper authorities to the necessity of having regular wards for such cases elsewhere than in prisons or police stations, and that observation wards be arranged for in connection with the same." -Otago Daily Times, 16/9/1907.
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