CHILD MARTYRS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 52, 2 March 1901, Page 5 (Supplement)

CHILD MARTYRS.

RESCUED FROM A LIVING DEATH,

AN EX-LAY PREACHER IN THE DOCK.

Strange indeed was the tale unfolded to the Bristol magistrates on January 17th, when the charges against David Allport and a woman who gave the name of Louisa Allport—but whose name ts Louisa Chapell—again came on for hearing. The charges are, of cruelly illtreating the two children of the male prisoner—Berther, aged 11, and Walter, aged 9—and further attempting to murder the elder of the two boys. The evidence given at the previous hearings had been just sufficient to justify a remand, but at this, the second hearing, Mr Edward J. Watson, Who Is prosecuting on behalf of the N.S.P.C.C, was .able to give the complete story for the prosecution. In ISSB, said Mr Watson, Allport, who then said he was a widower, and had a child with him called Lottie, was living at a theological college at Hanley, in Staffordshire. According to his own story he was ordained, and went by the title of "Rev." A photograph showing Allport in clerical attire was produced in court. He held a license from the Bishop of Lichfield, and created some sensation in the place by his eloquent preaching. In April, IS9O, he married Annie Chadwick, and four children were born of the marriage, including Bertie and Walter. The family wandered about to various places, and at Tipton, Allport had to resign his post as lay reader for a most scandalous reason. After that he became an insurance agent, and husband and wife separatea for a while, the wife and children once becoming chargea,ble to the Liverpool Union. In ISB9, Allport told his wife to go home. and she went, taking with her one child, and leaving Bertie and Walter with Allport. She had never seen him since.

"Is she alive?" asked a magistrate with surprise, for Allport has stoutly declared that his wife died of consumption years

"Why, she's in court," said Mr Watson, and Allport started violently.

Mr Watson added that Allport settled in Bristol in the latter part of 1889, with the two boys. He lodged at various places among them being the house of a Mrs Lewis, in Viacoff Parade. He left after a time, Walter remaining in her care. Bertie had been adopted by a Mrs Williams, who answered an advertisement asking some one to adopt a child. Allport then went to live with the woman Louisa Chapell, and ultimately Bertie and Walter were sent back to him. ILL-TREATMENT BEGINS. The children weTe then plump ana healthy, but from that time onward Bertie and Walter were treated in an entirely different manner from the four children of Louisa Chapell by her late husband. They had to sit on stools and take their food apart from the rest, and were frequently beaten with a cane. They were so hungry that they would gnaw bare bones that had been thrown away, and once when a charwoman was taking away some dry crusts for her chickens they seized and ate them.

"Oh," said Allport, when some one remarked that the boys were getting thin, "the people who adopted them starved them." Once Bertie was so ravenous that Louisa Chapell laughed and said, "I can't help but laugh; he laps up food like a little dog." Both prisoners had expressed the wish that the boys were at the "bottom of the float."

Dr. Peake said that Bertie had been out of his mind for 14 days after removal to the hospital, and was not yet fit to make any statement. Allport first called at his surgery and said that he wished him to see one of his boys, who was dyIng of diabetes, as his mother had done before him. He could not pay the doctor much, he said, but as the boy could not recover, and was insured for £9, he would be able to pay him something.

Dr. Peake found the boy in bed with another boy in a room destitute of all furniture save the bed. There was no fire, and .the window was open. Both boys were weak and ill. He told Allport that what they needed was nourishment. Allport asked him if it would be all right for a certificate if Bertie died. Being suspicious, he said, "Oh, that's all right," but he added that if the boys did not get better, there was a society which would see into the matter. Louisa Chapell's children looked well fed and cared for. CHILD'S CRY FOR FOOD.

On December 12th, he was asked to go and see the baby. He then asked after the boys. Aiiport said Bertie was worse and always craving for food. Dr. Peake asked why he did not give him some, and went upstairs. The door was locked, and Allport said it was always kept so. When he went into the room he again found the window open and.no fire. The boys were very cold. Bertie, who had scarcely any pulse, was in "deplorable condition. His knees were drawn %ip to his chest, and he had scarcely strength to sit up in bed. He was terribly wasted and, said Dr. Peake, amid sensation, "so thin was he that the wan of his stomach seemed to be resting on his spine." Bertie took hold of his hand and begged him not to go.

When he said he must, the boy said, "Give me some food, father."

Allport, who was holding the light, dropped it. On its being relit, Bertie again said, "Don't leave me, doctor," and asked him for money to buy food. He told the father to give him some mllK and beef tea. Next day he reported the matter to the police and to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. That night Allport called at his house and again asked whether he would give a certificate if Bertie died.

This closed Dr. Peake's evidence, ana Annie Allport, the prisoner's discarded wife, went into the box and bore out the statements made by Mr Watson. Mrs Lewis, "With whom Allport lodged, followed, and then the court adjourned for a week, with still 27 witnesses to be heard.