Woman Alleged To Have Beaten Daughter With Hose

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29273, 3 August 1960, Page 13

Woman Alleged To Have Beaten Daughter With Hose

SYDNEY, August 2. A 37-year-old woman had admitted having beaten her daughter with a rubber hose for three weeks, a detective alleged in the Magistrate’s Court at Glen Innes, 420 miles north of Sydney, today.

The girl, Elizabeth Margaret Galvin, aged 18, was now in Glen Innes Hospital, after having had her left leg amputated, said the witness, Detective-Sergeant F. W. Collings. The mother, Edna Joyce Galvin, a domestic, was charged with having maliciously inflicted grievious bodily harm on the girl. The girl. Elizabeth Galvin, brought from the hospital to the witness-box, said her mother had pushed a hot poker into her face a week before she was admitted to hospital. Since she had been in hospital, her left leg had been amputated. She said her father was a bush worker, who worked away from home, and she lived in a shack with her mother and nine other children. She said that before Easter she “got into trouble for taking things I didn't take.” Her mother had blamed her for having taken a ring. Soon afterwards, a £5 note was missed, and her mother had blamed her for taking that. Several days later, some bread had disappeared from' the shack and

her mother “hit me a lot” with the rubber hose. “She hit me on the leg I had taken off, the other leg, my arms, back, face, and legs.” Elizabeth Galvin said. “She had me locked up in a shed and wouldn’t let me out. “I couldn’t walk after the thrashing. That night I was crying with pain, and she came in and told me if I didn't go to sleep she would cut my throat. About a week before I came into hospital mum put a hot poker on my face,” she said. The girl then showed the Court a scar on her lower jaw. Elizabeth Galvin told the Court that several days after her mother beat her, her left leg turned black and “blowflies got at it.” Her mother had beaten her again on Good Friday, and she had bled from the head, shoulders, face, and arms. Mrs Galvin was committed for trial at Quarter Sessions, Glen Innes, next November. The Magistrate, Mr F. L. Sheppard, allowed her £5O bail, with similar surety, and ordered her not to visit her daughter until the charge against her had been beard.