Lorraine May Gardner

Lorraine May Gardner died five days after she said she had been kicked in the leg by a boy at school.

She had lived in 4/79 Frankfort Street in Hockley and had gone to Cowper Infants School in Aston.

Her father said that she had come home from school and complained that a boy at school had kicked her in the knee.

The next morning she was unable to put her leg to the ground and they sent for a doctor who put her on penicillin. Three days later she was admitted to hospital where she died the following day.

The headmistress of Cowper Infants School said that she had made enquiries in her class and could find no evidence that Lorraine Gardner had been distressed or had hurt herself in any way.

The doctor that carried out her post mortem agreed with the Coroner in that a number of such cases were associated with injuries in retrospect. He added that there were also quite a number with no evidence of injuries, but that he thought that any significant injury would have left some evidence.

When the Coroner summed up he noted that there was not enough evidence to show whether Lorraine Gardner had been telling the truth about having been kicked and an open verdict was returned.