AN UNHAPPY STEPSON.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 130, 1 June 1908, Page 3

AN UNHAPPY STEPSON.

DEPLORABLE STATE OF AFFAIRS. (Before Mr. C. C. Kettle, SM.) Thomas Jones, the stepfather of the seven and a-half year old boy Stanley McLueas, was called again this morning in connection with the charge of cruelty preferred against him, Sergent Hendry prosecuting and Mr. M. Hampson defending.: ■ ■--[ . : According to the tearful account related by the boy, his stepfather had a habit of swearing at him, and beating him with a belt, and that when he was drunk, which "was sometimes, and every Saturday night besides, the beatings were more severe. So at last he decided to run away from his stepfather. "Why. did he . beat you?" asked the magistrate. "Because I ran" away," said the boy. ■ "And why did you run away this ■time?"—'"Because when his boots ■were wet and I could not polish them he beat mc." The lad then went on to say that his stepfather, after catching Tiim and taking Mm back home on the Friday night, put a dirty old dress on him to prevent him from running away, and then about half-past seven in the evening tied Mm up in bed, so that he could not move, and that he was kept bound to the bed till half-past seven the next night, when the policeman arrived. All he had on him during this time was an old skirt and an old shirt, with a thin bit of a blanket between his body and the rope, which was made fast to the stairs so ■that he could not reach the ends to unfasten them.' His stepfather gave him some breakfast at half-past seven on Saturday morning, but he was left then till about five o'clock at night, and he was very cold and hungry. Questioned by Mr. Hendry, the boy declared that he often went hungry— sometimes he only had bread to eat without dripping. About six weeks ago he had come out of hospital after suffering from a broken hip, and he had been beaten several times since. Mrs. Jane O'Brien, in whose house Jones rents rooms, expressed the opinion that the boy had received cruel and heartless treatment from his stepfather, who to her definite knowledge beat the boy almost? regularly every morning. One morning she was going upstairs and saw the man strapping the lad, and when the child cried the man threatened to give him more unless he stopped crying. She herself had occasionally given the boy food, as he seemed to be very much neglected. Mrs. O'Brien herself did not see the stepfather tie the boy up, but when she saw the x child he was so bound that he could not move. Constable Murray, to whom Jones complained that he could not control his stepson, explained that he found the boy bound on a piece of mattress at the top of the stairs, with a small shirt and a couple of old coats covering him. It was at the top of the stairs, where the child caught the full draught from the flat below. Jones himself then went into the box and declared that what he had done was done in what he considered to be the best interests of the boy. The boy had been very unruly and repeatedly caused his anxiety, so at last he decided to endeavour to get him into an industrial institution. But in the meantime he ran away, and he (Jones) informed the police. When the boy ran away from his home in Alt. Roskill he went to liis grandmother's, and he himself finally found him in Ponsonby ou the Friday, took him home, informed the police that night, and only hid him up for safety on the Saturday morning till the constable arrived. Four times on Saturday he went to the police station, and was only able to obtain a constable to accompany him home in the evening. "Did you strike your wife once when she was' near confinement, and blacken both her eyes?" inquired Sergeant Hendry. "Xo," replied the witness, "I have only struck her once, and then I did not blacken her eyes." Neither had he left her for four days in a filthy and unattended condition, when she was suffering from typhoid fever, continued Jones, indignantly. In answer to Mr. Kettle, Jones declared that gambling had) nothing to do with his domestic troubles. He had) not had a bet on a racecourse for over two j cars, he averred, putting the Testament to his lips in fervour thereof. " .No," said his Worship, " but have you done any gambling off the course?" but Jones vouchsafed no satisfactory reply to this query. The wife was then called by Jones in support of his contention that everything in his home went harmoniously barring only this bad boy, and she declared that the child was very rude sometimes to her husband, with whom she had lived happily for four years. But Constable Wainhouse deposed) in uncorroboration that he had at a former period visited the domicile of the Jones, and found the wife lying in a deplorable state on a bed that contained no sheeting whatever, and had but two thin blankets, while the woman had been lying absolutely without attention lor lour days. On her left cheek were the dark marks of recent blows, saij the police officer, the wife admitting that these attentions had been bestowed' upon her by her husband before he went to work that morning. "The evidence of ill-treatment and neglect is overwhelming," commented the Magistrate, "and is another instance of what may be brought about by gambling and drink. The wife lias undoubtedly preferred to keep quiet about the dreadful treatment she has received at his hand; but it is clear that he treated the child in a shameful and callous manner. To bind a little boy like that, only a few weeks out of hospital with a broken thigh, on a bed at the head of a staircase in the manner he did was an act of the grossest character. I recognise that parents have difficulties with their children, but these are often brought about by their own neglect. If fathers drink and gamble they cannot control their children. In extreme cases the proper course is to apply for a committal to an industrial institution," the expense of the child's maintenance to be borne by the parents, and rightly so. But in this case the circumstances show a most callous neglect." His Worship then convicted Jones, ordered the boy to be retained at the Costley Institute, whither he had been taken by the police, the stepfather to contribute 8/ a week towards his maintenance, and remanded Jones for sentence until Saturday. • The man's wife, Ellen Jones, was also on the sheet charged with stealing a bottle of beef and iron wine from the shop of David Teed, Newmarket; but the circumstances showed that she had been discharged irom hospital only last week, and was found wandering about a field at Epsom some days later, apparently in an unhinged state of mind. His Worship accordingly ordered her to be

handed over to the care:of the Salvation Army authorities, and to be kept under medical observation. - , •■■" •:' -