The Haslingden Gazette. — 1908-06-06 (Haslingden, Lancashire, England)

INQUEST ON THE BODIES.  COOPER CONSIDERED INSANE.  Mr. H. J. Robinson (coroner) conducted an in. quiry on Monday morning, at the Co-op. Assembly Room, Osivaldtwistle, into the death of James Cooper and Lily Cooper, the victims of she murder and suicide tragedy at Stanhill the previous Friday. Councibor Cook was the foreman  of the jury. • Thu Coroner Bald he would take the inquesta on  tho father and daughter together. Mary Ann Cooper said her husband was an outdoor labourer, and was 53 tears old. It was over two years since he worked regularly. He did odd jobs. He got work, but said he was not , able to dolt. He had been undcr Dr. Armistead,  who said he suffered from weakness and nervous debility. Deceased seemed to get worse, and became low-spirited. She left him in bed early on Friday morning, when she went to work, leaving Lily and thy other girl with him. Lily would have been six years old on the 7th of July. When she came back to the house at noon she called out to her husband, tut receiving no answer she went . . • , •  upstairs and saw Lily lying on the bed and looking very pale. She found that her throat had been cut. The breed knife was on the bed, and there was blood on the bed. Witness then went downstairs to Mrs. Perkins. _ . . .  _ Jane Alice Cooper, one of the daughters, 1: ^ •  years of age, said she got up on Friday morning and got tho breakfast ready. She called out to her father and asked him if Lily was going to school, and he said "No." She left the knife  and breakfast on the table and went to school about nib o o'clock. _ .  Mary Ann Perkins said she lived next door to the Cooper. About half-past nine in the forenoon of the day named she saw the deceased man going up Aspin-lane. He spoke to her first. He said "Good morning Mrs Perkin." She an S;C:rnd -CU; Ho soomed to bZi-g-c7n-g-more-q-u-ickly than usual. Sergt. Hodgson: Did you notice anything about . •  his .c;at colln3r ?—He itei.tued to ha.-trO' it Cutioned  higher up than usual. Councillor Cook: Have you at any time seen any strangeness about this mtm?-11e was a bit peculiar sometimes. P.S. Hodgson said he received information as to what had occurred about 12 o'clock. He got to the house in about ten minutes afterwards. Ho found the deceased child lying on the bed face dov.nwards. He could see a small portion of the face. The throat was cut from ear to ear; the arteries and windpipe were severed, and the knife had penterated to the bone at the back of the ,neck, the bone being slightly cut. The child, it appeared, slept with its parents. He found the table knife tproduced) on the bed covered with blood. Mrs. Cooper informed him it was the only knife in the house. It showed signs of having been recently sharpened. The child appeared to have had its throat out whilst it was lying faro downwards, the blood having gone straight through the mattress from its throat as it lay with its face on the bed. He had seen a lot of cut throats but never one so bad as that. He went in search of Cooper, and from inquiry he was told that he had been seen going through Stanhill. Ho suspected that Cooper would probably have committed suicide, and he went to Kemp Dolph. It was clear water in the- delph, and the part where the body Ivan in was only eight feet deep. Ho could new the body, and the , hands showed white in the water. The body was face downwards. They got him out with a rope. I On the left side of the neck there were two wounds 2i inches tong, and some slight scratches. The I wounds were superficial, and none of the main blood vessels were penetrated. Cooper had been in the water about three hours, and the blood was washed off. P.C. Greenwood accompanied the sergeant on his visit to the house and delph. I The Coroner said the child's throat had been cut by the father, and therefore it was murder agnimt Cooper as far as the child was concerned. I Cooper left the house immediately and made away ! with himself. He tried to cut his throat but had not the pluck to do it, and then threw himself into the water. It was for the jury to consider whether he was mad at the time. When per. tons suffered from nervous debility they could never trust them. It was always a kind of mental weaknets. It appeared that the man was not, of sound inind when he made away with himself. A Juryman: I think he was not of sound mind. P.S. Hodgson remarked thet Dr. Armistead examined the body of the child and said he had attended the father, and his opinion a-as that it was a case of impulsive -insanity, and that it was done on a moment's notice.