HELLISH ANN FOSTER.

NZ Truth, Issue 73, 10 November 1906, Page 6

HELLISH ANN FOSTER.

Only Three Years for a Devilish Murder,

Innocent's Desperate Struggle for Life.

There is a general consensus of opinion that Ann -Foster, who deliberately murdered her grandchild by slowly starvino- it to death for eighteen months at a place just out of Christchurch, got off far too easily when she was sentenced to only three years' imprisonment by Judge" Chapman t'other day. The facts are that her daughter. Harriet Foster, gave birth to a child when she was under the age of consent. It was a pitiable case, of course, but these cases are very common, worse luck. The Fosters are of. the poor farming class with very little brass, if any, but when the unwanted infant arrived m the world there was

A' SYSTEMATIC METHOD OP STARVATION employed, and at tlje end of the period stated it ceased with the death of the infant. What that unfortunate kiddie suffered owing to the pangs of hunger, God only knows, but it can be imagined, at any rate. There was an inkiest* held, and it was shown that tlie girl-mother had never suckled the child, but had fed it out of a cup containing condensed milk. She never even bought a feeding bottle. The mother had most to do with iv, and it slept wi'oh the old dame, not with her. But she stated that the child never took its food properly. Iso doctor was called m when vhe youngster i was ro.nily bad, ar.d it s:n lifted out. ' The grandmother, Ann Foster, told

the Coroner and jury - that she had been careless m the matter of calling m a doctor, and said no doubt she should have done so. 1 The deceased was thin and small, and didn't take sufficient to keep it alive. She had entire charge of the child. It was shown that

THIS INHUMAN WOMAN > had reared seven children of her own —all lusty looking— and that the deceased babe might have easily been just as lusty had it been properly looked after, for the doctor who made the post-mortem said that the mite was m a terrible condition, and the body, he stated, was jery emaciated; there was no food m, the stomach ; the bowels were empty, and were almost transparent. Its.. weigh i; was 6 lt>^, whereas the normal: 'weight of a child of the age of 13 -months would be from 25lbs to 30lb;s:; the "average weight at -birth was v 7ilbs. Furtheir, the medico stated that, to reach the dead kid's stats of emaciation it coufd not have ' been properly fed for months -at least. The mother and the grandmother swore that it was offered food five times a day ; yst the doctor* who is a man of experience, said that so far as he could see there wasn't the slightest 'reason why the child shouldn't "have lived and dons well. The photographs talcen of the eighteen months old baby by Detective Cox were something of

A SICKENING SPECTACLE • when handed round for observation to the jury at the trial of the pair, who were defended by Lawyer Harvey, who alluded m pathetic terms to the poverty of the Foster family, and mentionetl that no doubt - ignorance was at the bottom of the whole business; probably carelessness of a sort ; and if the jury thought it was ignorance that would be the .end of the matter, fn .'summing up, the Judge alluded to; the fact /.that illegitimate 'children were' 1 : not 'sd well cared for as legitimates; and there' is ho doubt he struck the hail .on. the head there. The mothers of these , unfortunates don'.t seem . ; tQ care whether "they pass put or ' not. In & case^ of that sort it Would be one\qf manslaughter; if it .was a case of neglect, not wilful neglect, the jury were. entitled to acquit. Well, the iury acquitted the mother of the infant, but sent the grandmother up. She evidently had sole. charge of the wretched infant and they held her responsible, but recommended her to mercy. A question was reserved for the Appeal Court as to which section of the Criminal Code she was convicted under, but she had no • hope; and now she has got three years, which, considering all

THAT' STARVING YOUNGSTER must have undergone since the unhappy day it was bor^n, is far too little. There is, it is a regrettable fact to state, far too much of this sort of thins done in 'the colony and other colonies, ihoughyit.is only how and again that such, l ,a - glaring .case conies to lif-ht. The /babies,are.star-v---ed systematically,- or.'are neglected' by illegitimate mothers .7 or ■• their -relatives, or the ladies who take prer m ruins for generously; Jooking_ ; after them, and who do them to death "the first opportunity.. ; : '. It is not -implied that every female...who. takes over a child m this- way 'does a Criminal act of that sort, or that licensed ' houass are capable of that kind of thing— fair from it—but there 'are certainly people m the community who arer capable of, and who do, this sort of murder, and it's a pity, they weren't .jugged like the Christchurch woman, Ann Foster, whose grandchild made such a desperate fight for life against hopeless odds that m the end overwhelmed it.