Age: 74
Sex: male
Date: 8 Feb 1905
Place: Keeton Street, Pontefract Lane, Leeds
Joseph Pollard died from head injuries.
He had lived in Keeton Street off Pontefract Lane in Leeds and had been admitted to the Workhouse Infirmary on 15 September 1905 suffering from head injuries, saying that someone had assaulted him.
He later died there on 8 February 1905 from inflammation of the brain.
An 11-year old girl who lived with her father in Keeton Street said that on the evening of 13 September 1905 that she was playing with a friend when she saw Joseph Pollard asleep in a chair. She said that as she watched him, she saw his head droop lower and lower until he fell and his head struck the edge of the door.
Her story was corroborated by an 13-year-old girl who said that after she saw Joseph Pollard that she went off on an errand with her friend and that when they returned Joseph Pollard had been picked up. She added that there had been someone in the house at the time although the first girl said that there had not been. He named the woman that had been there and said that she told her and her friend to go away.
A policeman said that when he was called to the house by the woman there that he saw Joseph Pollard, who he said was under the influence of drink, lying on the bed suffering from a large lump and from cuts to his head. He said that the woman gave him to understand that he had fallen from a chair. He also said that Joseph Pollard made no charges against anybody.
However, a miner who lived in Keeton Street said that he had heard Joseph Pollard and another man that he knew quarrelling, and heard the man threaten Joseph Pollard and then leave the house. He added that the man came back to the house later that evening and that the two quarrelled again and that he then heard the sound of a fall and then saw the man go off in the direction of York Road. He said that he then went into Joseph Pollard's house and found him lying in a pool of blood and picked him up and put him in a chair.
He said that he then went off to find the other man and that after he did they went back to Keeton Street where the man asked him to assist Joseph Pollard as he had fallen again. He said that he then saw Joseph Pollard lying against the fireplace. He said that the man then asked him to 'chuck' Joseph Pollard on to the bed, but the man replied, 'Let him alone. You have done enough'.
He said that when he saw Joseph Pollard the following day, he asked him how he had came by his injuries and said that he told him that the man had done it to him.
The woman that lived in the house said that Joseph Pollard had gone out earlier that day at about 3pm and had returned three hours later the worse for drink. She said that when he came in, he sat in a chair and then fell with his head against the open door. She said that when she went downstairs to see him, she found him bleeding from the side of his head and she then put him on the bed.
The woman said that the man that was alleged to have struck him had left the house at 6am and had not returned until about 8pm. When she was cross-examined by the coroner on whether she was sure that the man had been out of the house since 6am and 8pm, the woman said that she was quite sure.
The man, a labourer, gave evidence at the inquest and denied that he had ever struck Joseph Pollard or even quarrelled with him.
When the coroner summed up he said that that there was no doubt that the case was a difficult one to deal with, noting that no two witnesses agreed in their statement regarding the proceedings of the day in question. He said that there was suspicion against the man and noted that it was open for the police to take such proceedings as they might think fit, having regard to the interests of justice and that as such he thought that it might be best for the jury to return an open verdict stating that Joseph Pollard's death was due to the result of a fall but that there was no evidence to show how it occurred.
see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
see Yorkshire Evening Post - Monday 20 February 1905
see Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer - Tuesday 21 February 1905