105 years ago the whole of Australasia was in a state of scandalised vapours over a tragedy variously billed as "The Randwick Murder" or "The Kensington Mystery".
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These were the neighbourhoods of Sydney in which the principal events in the mysterious death of an unfortunate young woman, Ivy Alice O'Brien [aka Roe], had occurred.
While the facts were never spelt out in black and white, it appears Miss O'Brien had died on August 23 after seeking treatment at the hands of a backyard abortionist and qualified nurse, Eleanor Brown.
The victim's body had allegedly been driven to the beach by Nurse Brown's son, David, and abandoned where it was discovered by a passerby.
Evidence emerged at the inquest that the girl's stepfather, Henry Roe, and her mother, who was also a nurse, had wanted to throw the body over a cliff "where it would be more easily found".
The newspapers, including New Zealand's Hawera and Normanby Star, reported that: "there is evidence that in addition to undergoing an illegal operation [code for an abortion] the girl took a drug [possibly chloroform] in copious quantities".
While Nurse Roe denied knowing about her daughter's movements, evidence was given she had actually arranged the abortion, visiting Nurse Brown's home on August 22, the day before the operation was performed.
Phoebe Nock, the witness who placed Nurse Roe at Nurse Brown's on August 22, said Miss O'Brien had arrived at Brown's at 11am on August 23.
"Ten minutes or so afterwards Mrs Brown came to her in an excited state and said `Phoebe , this girl has fainted'," the papers reported.
Mrs Nock said when she went upstairs Miss O'Brien was reclining in a chair on the balcony, with her hands twitching.
Mrs Nock was sent to get Nurse Roe and was later told to deny any knowledge the girl had been in the house.
On the basis of the evidence given at the inquest Nurse Brown was initially charged with murder. This was reduced to manslaughter.
Nurse Brown told the police who charged her "I'm not going to be a sealed oyster on this occasion; I have taken all the brunt on all other times. I am not going to keep my mouth shut and take all the blame this time".
The case finally made its way to the Central Criminal Court two months later on November 22, 1910.
It took the jury just 30 minutes to acquit Nurse Brown and send her on her way.
