A Recent Judicial Decision
| Author | R. V. Purcy |
| Published date | 01 October 1933 |
| Date | 01 October 1933 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X3300600403 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
A
Recent
Judicial
Decision
R.
v. Purcy
THIS curious case came before the Court of Criminal
Appeal on the znd May.
The
appellants had been con-
victed at the Northamptonshire QuarterSessions of obstructing
a coroner in the execution of his duty.
The
particulars of the
offence were stated in the following terms :
,Frederick Purcy, Jane Purcy and Sarah Purcy on a day between
the znd day of February and the roth day of February, 1933, in the
County of Northampton, intending to prevent the Coroner of the Mid
Division of Northamptonshire from holding an inquest in the execution
of his duty upon view of the dead body of Albert Walter Purcy who died
a violent or an unnatural death or a sudden death of which the cause
was unknown or intending to obstruct the said coroner in the holding
of such inquest did conceal the said body in a hedge bottom in Dodding-
ton Fields in the County of Northampton.'
The
defendants were tramps.
The
baby was born on the
3rd November, 1932, and was last seen alive on the
znd
February when it was obviously very ill.
There
was abundant
evidence
that
it had been very
ill
since January. On 16th
February the dead baby was found in a hedge wrapped in a
bundle of clothes. A post-mortem examination showed
that
the cause of death was broncho-pneumonia accelerated by
lack of attention, and the doctor who conducted it added that
the child died from natural causes.
The
male prisoner, when
interviewed by the Police,
said:
,
The
baby died in the pram.
Not
knowing what to do with it my
wife wrapped it up in a black openwork shawl and we went together and
laid it in a hedge bottom in a rough lane.
It
was stiff when we
put
it
there. I thought it died of a fit.'
394
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