315
-
11
chemist or the Scenes of Crime Officer (Ballistics
expert)?
I confess that in Sheffield, when faced with what
appears to be an obvious suicide complete with suicide
note, motive etc, we don't always bother to perform
this test, but I think that in any alleged suicide with
5 gunshot wounds we certainly would do so. It may be
that the authorities in Hong Kong took the view that
this was such an obvious suicide that the tests were
unnecessary.
iii) Though it is not a statistic which is documented
routinely in our major case files, I cannot, offhand,
recollect ever having had a suicide who shot himself
in the dark. I imagine that this is because the weapon
is usually loaded immediately before the act and this
requires at least some light. In addition, I am not
certain of the degree of darkness which would be present
in the room at shortly after 6.00 a m in January in
Hong Kong. Were the curtains completely lightproof
iv)
the evidence of the witness Quinn suggests that probably
they were.
Though, in my experience, early morning suicides are
quite common, and this is because depressives frequently
wake early, and take their lives on impulse at this time,
I cannot understand why a man should come to his room in
the evening, telephone at 2.00 a m and ask to be
awakened at 5.30 a m in order to shoot himself at
6.15 a m.
If he was going to kill himself, why not do
it then, at 2.00 a m? The answer may lie in the routine
of the armoury, To call for a weapon at 2.00 a m might
have aroused suspicion whereas a similar request made
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.