James Patrick OConnor

James Patrick OConnor was found dead in a courtyard.

It was thought that he had fallen from a balcony.

He was a dock checker and had lived at 6 Scourfield Street in Liverpool.

He was found dead on the Thursday morning, 7 January 1943 in the courtyard of a block of Corporation tenements in Caryl Gardens, Caryl Street, Liverpool. He was found lying in a pool of blood with a fractured skull and had three broken ribs.

The coroner said that he did not think that the evidence was sufficient to return anything other than an open verdict but said that he could see no reason to believe that it was anything other than an accident.

The police said that James OConnor had been out to several public houses on the Wednesday night and had later joined a group that went off to a house in Caryl Gardens. The house was on the fourth floor of a block of tenement dwellings and was at the top of eight flights of steps.

The police said that they found that James OConnor had left the party at about 10.10pm under the influence of drink and had gone with two other people to the top of the staircase where he was then left alone. The police said that nothing more was known of James OConnor's movements until his body was found the following morning.

The police suggested that he might have, in his drunken state, thought that he had reached the ground floor when he was actually on a balcony 14 feet above it. They also suggested that he might have been looking over the balcony to see how much further down he had to go and had then over-balanced.

The police said that the lowest balcony was about 14 feet from the ground. The police added that there was no evidence of foul play.

Two people that had been at the party said that James OConnor had seemed able to take care of himself when he left and said that when they last saw him descending the stairs he had done so carefully with his hand on the rail and had had called out 'Goodnight'. They added that there had been no trouble at the party.