Supreme Court Woman On Trial On Charges Of Assaulting Girl At Kaikourai

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29368, 22 November 1960, Page 12

Supreme Court Woman On Trial On Charges Of Assaulting Girl At Kaikourai

The Crown’s case was that Raey Catherine Mary Bell, aged 30, married with five children, wife of a chemist in Kaikoura, had flogged Elizabeth Ravenswood, now aged 21, with a leather belt and heavy stick, and assaulted her in other ways so that she had completely subjugated the girl while she was employed for three years as a domestic servant in the Bells’ home, the Crown Prosecutor (Mr P. T. Mahon) told a jury in the Supreme Court yesterday. Mr Mahon was opening in the trial of Bell, who pleaded not guilty to three charges of assaulting Ravenswood so as to cause her actual bodily harm and a further three charges of assaulting Ravenswood.

Ravenswood, the second witness called, was being cross-examined when Mr Justice Richmond adjourned the hearing until today. At one stage, 21 women and 18 men were in the public galleries. Bell is charged with causing gross deformity of both ears on unknown dates between June 1, 1958, and June 1, 1960, causing Ravenswood a lacerated wound of the upper lip on March 1. 1960, and, on the same date stitching this wound. The three charges of common assault are that Bell thrashed Ravenswood with a stick on March 7, 1960; with a belt on May 1. and kicked her in the ribs so as to fracture them, on or about May 1, 1960. Mr W. F. Brown, with him Mr G. T. Mahon, appeared for Bell. After the adjournment, his Honour granted Bell bail overnight. The application for bail was heard in chambers. Opening Address Not many women appeared in the Court on charges of violence and the evidence would reveal very unusual circumstances, said Mr P. T. Mahon, opening the case for the Crown. In 1955, Betty Ravenswood met the Bell family. Betty was then 15 and had been living with her parents at Lower Hutt. She became pregnant and went, to Kaikoura to live with the Bell family, under an arrangement with the Child Welfare Department, while she had her baby. Bell, the husband of the accused, was a chemist.

Betty had the baby in July. 1955, and the child was adopted straight away. Betty stayed on at the Bells for a few months and then went to Christchurch to work in a hospital early in 1956. In 1956, Betty went to Mount Magdala for some months. Mrs Bell found she wanted some further help in her home and, at her request, Betty went back to the Bells about April, 1957, said Mr Mahon.

“She stayed there until June 9, 1960, when a doctor in Kaikoura sent her to Burwood hospital,” Mr Mahon said. ‘‘When Betty left Mount Magdala in 1957 she was in good health, aged 18. rather plump and weighing between 10 and 11 stone.

“When she arrived, at Burwood in June, 1960, she weighed a little over six stone. Her condition was such that she had to have a blood transfusion.

“Her facial appearance was changed so drastically that her father had difficulty in recognising his own daughter,” said consel. Injuries Listed

• Mr Mahon listed injuries to the girl on her admission to Burwood, as, follows:

(1) Bad bruises on both legs from knees to ankles; large ulcers on the front of the legs where the areas had become infected. The injuries were not connected with the charges against Mrs Bell, and were apparently caused by a trellis falling on the girl when she was mowing the Bells’ lawn. (2) Both the girl’s ears were grossly deformed; the left ear cauliflowered to such an extent that the opening was closed; the right ear not quite so bad. (3) A laceration of two inches on her chin—apparently the result of an accident, partly healed on admission. (4) Healed scar on the centre of her upper lip to the tip of her nose; stitched by an apparently unskilled hand so that the upper lip was grossly distorted giving the appearance of a hare lip. (5) A number of scars on the back of the head, mainly hidden by hair, the results of falls.

(6) A number of broken ribs on her left side, the fractures fairly recent and still healing on admission to Burwood. (7) A darning needle completely embedded in the flesh of the small of her back. (8) Multiple bruises on the buttocks and small of the back. Mr Mahon said that Betty was cowered and frightened when first admitted to hospital and for the first day or so the staff could get nothing from her. Her father later complained to the police.

“A doctor and the Kaikoura Hospital were quite near, but only once was medical aid called' for the girl Betty. That was when she had a carbuncle on her chin." said Mr Mahon.

“Apart from this, her ribs. ears, split lip and a gash under her chin were all treated by the accused. I suggest that Mrs Bell had the best of reasons for not getting medical advice—because she did not want any doctor or person in authority ever to see Betty,” Mr Mahon said. •He said that the accused was supposed to pay Betty £5 13s a week in wages. The accused used to retain £3 10s for board, leaving £2 5s for the girl, which was supposed to be put in a glass jar. The girl only left Kaikoura once, but had only a credit of some 13s in a Post Office Savings Bank book. “After three years Betty apparently owed Mrs Bell money. The accused kept a record in an exercise book of all the things broken by Betty. The total value of these things, crockery and so on. is no less than £181." said Mr Mahon. “In addition. Betty is debited with things for her injuries, cotton wool. lint, sticking plaster etc., from the chemist shop. This adds up to about £3O. “It is thus nlain that strict con trol was kent over the girl's money and it seems some things were'debited to her which an ordinary employer might not debit." M* Mahon said. He said that the jurv could I get a general impression of strict control as well as of punishment which, the Crown suggested. amounted to the complete subjugation of the girl by the

accused so that she was powerless to escape from the environment she was in. This explained why the girl took punishment which deformed her without complaint to anyone outside the family. The prosecution said that the accused when interviewed by the police made a long statement. She admitted stitching the girl's lip. but said the injury was caused by a carbuncle breaking. The’ accused said Betty would not see one doctor and the other was away for the day. The accused had admitted punishing the girl two or three times with a stick or a belt, but categorically denied causing all the girl’s injuries. “The accused’s statement generally says that Betty insists on telling a pack of lies about anything that matters." Mr Mahon said. Visit To Hospital The prosecutor said Betty would say that the accused had called to see her after she had been in Burwood Hospital for a month. The accused got Betty to write out a statement that she had not been punished at Kaikoura. “What the statement said is not important, but you might think it was strange the accused considered it necessary to get such a statement if all had been well at Kaikoura. The police did not see the accused until some weeks later and you may think (she seemed to have had plenty of time to think of the most convincing explanation,” Mr Mahon concluded. Margaret Elsie Barrance, a married woman and a child welfare officer in Christchurch, said Betty Ravenswood was not a ward of the State and had never been under the legal supervision of the Child Welfare Department. Witness said she saw the girl in October, 1956. and at Mount Magdala in March, 1957. The girl was well built, weighing between lOst and list, of happy, friendly disposition. She had no scars on her face or ears. She was below average in intelligence. She was not visited by any officer of the Child Welfare Department when she went to the Bells’ home in Kaikoura later in 1957 because she was not under the department’s supervision.

She did not see the girl again until the Lower Court hearing of the present proceedings at Kaikoura . last September, witness continued. ' Betty’s nose was flattened, her ears deformed and her lip split. She was subdued and “not the bright girl I had known.” Witness, at the request of Mr Brown, read two letters (produced), written by Betty Ravenswood to a child welfare officer. In the first, on October 12, 1955, Ravenswood wrote that she was very happy and did not want to leave Bell's.. . “It.is like another home and I am very fond of the children and Mr and Mrs Bell.”

On October 12, 1955. Ravenswood wrote saying she was sorry she had written to an aunt to tell her she was unhappy at Bell’s. “I wrote that in a bad mood ... I have been happy. Mrs Bell nursed me when I was sick.” Girl's Evidence

Ravenswood gave evidence about going to Kaikoura, as outlined in the prosecutor’s opening. The girl showed her ears to the jurors, standing in front of the jury box and pushing her hair back. said operations at Burwood had caused the ears to deflate but they were still misshapen. “My ears were deformed by Mrs Bell punching me about the head and ears. She punched me over three or four weeks in 1960. She did not tell me why she was punching me. My ears began to swell. I could not hear well. I could not keep my glasses on. They kept sliding off my ears. “I also got black eyes and a split lip through Mrs Bell punching me. My top lip was split a few months before I went to Burwood. Mrs Bell split it with a punch.” said witness. “Mrs Bell stitched the lip. It was in the garage. There was a stretcher. Mrs Bell sterilised a surgical needle. She did not give me an anaesthetic. The stitches drew the top of my nose down towards my lip. My nose was not flattened before my lip was split. Mrs Bell took the stitches out. The doctor's house was only a few yards away from Bell's—down the road and on the other side.” The girl said that she did not know she had broken ribs in her left side until after she went to Burwood Hospital. “Once when I was scrubbing the floor Mrs Bell told me to hurry as it was a busy day. Later she came back and kicked me in my left side. She had had black slippers on. After that my left side hurt when I moved my arms I cannot move my left arm so easily now." X-Ray Showed Needle Witness said she did not know she had a needle in her back until told an X-ray at Burwood showed it there. "Mrs Bell used to prick me with needles, mainly in the lower portions of the body. I thought it was mainly for fun at first. Mrs Bell used to say, ‘hurry on with your work.' I do not know how else the needle got in my back.” Ravenswood described the trellis falling on her legs. Mrs Bell’s treatment of the injuries, and the doctor calling. She also said that she slipped while hanging out the clothes and cut her chin.

“Mrs Bell treated it. She sewed it. She put stitches in. She did it in the bathroom. There was no anaesthetic.”

At this stage, his Honour interrupted and told the jury they would realise that many of the incidents Ravenswood was relat-

ing were not the subject of charges. The evidence was being admitted because it might have a bearing on the relationship between Ravenswood and the accused. Ravenswood described beatings she had had with a girl guide's belt (produced) from the accused and also with a stick, about two inches wide, from a bassinet, which was kept by accused in a cupboard under the stairs. The last beating she had had was about seven months before she was admitted to Burwood. “Mrs Bell used to put me over a table. She hit me either in the buttocks, or above or below them. Sometimes she told me to draw my dress up. Sometimes she made my legs bleed.”

Ravenswood said that before she went out of the house to the shop accused told her to put a scarf over her head to hide her ears, which were bandaged. Accused told her to tell people a boil had deformed her lip. “I did not tell people about the treatment I was getting. I respected Mrs Bell for looking afterme when I was having a baby. I did not want to get her into trouble.” Asked to Write Statement Ravenswood said that about a month after she was in hospital the accused came to see her. Father Walsh, of Kaikoura. and Mr Bell were with her. Accused stayed behind and asked her to write a statement that she was not punished while at Kaikoura. “I signed it. Mrs Bell took it. It was not true. I was not feeling myself at the time.” Ravenswood said when I asked why she wrote such a statement.

She said she weighed 6st 111 b when admitted to Burwood. She now weighed 9st. Cross-examination

To Mr Brown. Ravenswood said she did not always tell the truth while at Bells. She had told the truth since. The blow of Mrs Bell’s that split her lip appeared to her (witness) to be a punishment. She had been only a few days out of hospital when she appeared in the lower Court. She now said Mrs Bell punched her when she split her lip and kicked her several times when she broke her ribs.

Mr Brown: You agree you are now making it much worse for Mrs Bell than your evidence did in the lower Court? Ravenswood: Yes. It is the truth. Cross-examined at length, the girl agreed her glasses did slip, partially, before Mrs Bell's blows thickened her ears so that her glasses would not stay on at all when she bent forward.

She said she had only been once out of Kaikoura from 1957 t' 1960 —to Blenheim. She reiterated this when Mr Brown said the defence evidence would be that she had been to Blenheim three times.

Agreeing there had been a boil on her lip, Ravenswood said it appeared after' Mrs Bell had stitched, it. Ravenswood said there had been a boil on her left ear but denied she bad ever had one in her right ear. Mrs Bell had cut her hair short in. 1957 but Ravenswood denied, even if her witnesses for the defence said it, that her ears were bunched or cauliflowered then. She denied this again when referred to what witnesses from Mount Magdala would say. “The only thing wrong with my ears before Mrs Bell thickened them were that they were exceptionally small,” Ravenswood said after more questions. She said that “deep down” she disliked Mrs Bell for what she had done to her, but admitted writing to the accused several times after going to Burwood and sending one of the Bell children a basket she had made while in hospital. She strongly denied sending Mrs Bell a “prayer leaflet” by post about three weeks before the present hearing. Mr Brown; I put it to you that Mrs Bell was extraordinarily good to you over your last three years at Kaikoura? Ravenswood: On occasions, yes.