LADY PRINCIPAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 229, 27 September 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

LADY PRINCIPAL.

COMMITTED FOR TRIAL. CRUELTY TO CHILDREN CHARGE. A visit to Epsom to see the Derby at a time when some ot the children under her charge were said to be in bed with measles, was mentioned at Bromley ! Kent) Police Court, when Mrs. Hilda Caroline Trimm Fearn, principal o: Mereval High School, Bic-kley, appeared to answer charges brought by the N.S.P.C'.C. of neglecting ten children. One little girl, Joyce Budd. aged S. died. Mrs. Fearn, who pleaded not guilty and reserved her defence, was committed for trial at the Central Criminal Court, bail being allowed. It is alleged that Mrs. Fearn did not provide medical attention for children who had measles, ringworm, and other diseases, and that the child Budd was in bed a week before a doctor was called. Miss Frances Ethel Privett, 19. said she was assistant matron at the school from January to June. When she went there she found some of the children suffering from ringworm. No doctor attended them and they were not treated in any way. " That's Nothing." She suggested that a medical man should be called in. but Mrs. Fearn replied. "Oh, that's nothing. I can see to that." She did not. however, do so. Mi~s Privett said that Joyce Budd was ill in bed for a week with measles, aud she suggested that a doctor should be called. Mrs. Fearn said. "Oh. no. Measles is nothing. It i< only a child's complaint." Eventually a doctor was summoned. There were then three other children suffering from measles. Mr. Waddy (prosecuting): 'Who was looking after the measles cases'?—l was. Questioned by Mr. O'Malley ('for the defence). Miss Privett said that Mrs. Fearn treated one child for ringworm, but in the wrong way. She washed the child's head in soda water and rubbed the place sore. She rubbed in ointment much too hard. In reply to Mr. R. W. -James fchairman l. Mis-s Privett said there were no facilities for isolating the children. Mr. Freder'ck Buckland. an N.S.P.C'.C. inspector, said Mrs. Fearn in a statement to him said she called ill Dr. Hull, and he had been visiting daily, with the exception of '>:io day. Joyce Budd was taken poorly about the Thursday or Friday of the previous week. She kept her in bed. but did not call a doctor. On June '2. as the child seemed off colour, she asked Dr. Hull to see her. On June 4 she went to the Derby, leaving the child in charge of the matron. Miss Privett. and her husband gave instructions for the child's parents to be sent for. Dr. Franklin was consulting doctor to the school, but she owed him a bill, and that was why she did not call him in.