ILL-TREATMENT OF CHILD

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26855, 7 October 1952, Page 8

ILL-TREATMENT OF CHILD

MOTHER ADMITTED TO PROBATION (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, October 8. Pleading guilty to a Charge of wilfully ill-treating a child, June Wharakiki McCullough, aged 30, of Lower Hutt, was admitted to probation today for two years. She appeared before Mr J. A. Thomson, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court at Lower Hutt. Senior-Detective J. J. Murray said that on May 29 the accused’s son, aged two years and two months, Peter Howard McCullough, was admitted to the Hutt Public Hospital semi-conscious. The child had severe bruises on the legs and buttocks, and the backs of both hands were bruised and discoloured. Most of the marks were recent The boy was examined at the hospital, and 30 distinct bruises were found on his body. The child was in hospital from May 29 to June 11. The accused was expecting her sixth child at the time of thfe offence, said Mr Murray. The boy was given to ditty habits, and in trying to cure him of these the accused had apparently lost her temper. Conditions at the accused’s home had improved consider- ' ably, and the child welfare officers were satisfied with what they saw there, he said. For the accused Mr R. S. C. Agar said the beating of the child represented a temporary loss of control because of the burden accused had to carry in the home. She was very fond of her children, but had not been able to lavish very much affection on them. The Magistrate said the offence was one the Court looked on seriously, but in v|ew offthe probation officer’s report and the ciret®nstances of y the case he would admit the accused to probation.