Husband, Wife For Trial

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30803, 15 July 1965, Page 16

Husband, Wife For Trial

(KI Press Association)

PALMERSTON N., July 14. A husband and wife living at Shannon were today committed to the Supreme Court for trial on separate charges of assault on a child aged four years and one month, who was discharged from the Palmerston North Hospital after 15 days’ treatment for injuries. The husband is John Lynn, who was committed for trial for assault on the child on June 19. His wife, Ki Matariki Lynn, will appear before a jury for alleged assault on the ehild on June 20. She is mother of the child, who was born at Rarotonga before she met her present husband The depositions on both charges were taken before Mr M. B. Scully, S.M. SeniorSergeant C. J. Smillie, of Levin, prosecutedJohn Lynn was represented bv Mr J Upton (Wellington! end his wife by Mr C. G H"hbard. The couple live in Grand street extension. Shannon i rn<* were married at Levin in May, 1962 loth pleaded not guilty I Thev were allowed bail of ’nd one surety of £”)j Lcforv the luncheon ad-i

joumment the Court had committed Mrs Lynn for trial. Some of the evidence had to be repeated on a charge of assault on the child by Lynn. James Lanyon Poor, a medical practitioner of Shannon, said he visited the home of Lynn and Mrs Lynn, whose child he found to be bruised on the arms and legs. Her face was bruised and cut one eye was almost closed, and there was a large contusion on the right eye. Some of the bruises were recent and others old. It was evident the child had been knocked about extensively Both parents were upset, and the husband explained his wife was in a very nervous and excitable state.

Mason Harold Durie, senior house surgeon at the hospital, said the child on admission had multiple bruises over her whole body. There were skull lacerations. But the striking thing about the girl was her emotional flatness. She showed no reaction when pressure was applied to the points of injury. Senior-Sergeant Smillie: Why was that? Witness: I do not know. Possibly because she was afraid.

Witness said X-rays showed the wrist skull and bones of the lower legs to be normal She was running around the ward after seven days, when her injuries were barely visible. The recuperative powders of a child were much greater than those of an adult. 1 Frank W. Pollock, a con-

stable, of Levin, said in the living-room bf the Lynn home broken crockery and loaves of bread were scattered around

Witness discussed with the parents the domestic dispute they were having. The child came out of a bedroom wtih her face heavily bruised and one leg dragging. Mrs Lynn had told witness the child had been in that condition for two days, and her husband said she had fallen down the back steps. Thrashing Admitted

Mrs Lynn admitted she had thrashed the child because of fouling her bed. Mrs Lynn was very distressed, crying and rather hysterical. Detective W. B. Bern, of Levin, said he obtained from the parents the information that the injured child was born to Mrs Lynn at Rarotonga as the result of an association with another man before her present marriage. She - had not wanted the child in the house, but her husband wanted to adopt it and had arranged for the girl to be brought to New Zealand. She had been in the country for three months and could not yet speak English. Mrs Lynn had said that the child had fallen down some steps two days earlier, said witness., She also said her husband had blackened the child’s eyes the previous evening. Mrs Lynn admitted she had hit the child because she was always messing on the floor and in the bed. She hit the child with her hands and sometimes with a wooden jam spoon, which she had

broken over the child’s buttocks. Witness said the next morning accused admitted having had an argument with her husband and had knocked the child to the floor and kicked her on the legs and body, because she “got wild” with her husband and took it out on the (jhild. In evidence on the charge against the husband, Pollock said, while waiting for the Levin ambulance to arrive, he had asked accused how the injuries to the child were caused.

Accused replied that he had “got wild with the kiddie” because she messed the bed and on the floor. He had belted her several times.

Robert William Bamber, a detective, of Levin, said the woman said her husband had caused the child’s eyes to blacken by bashing her head on the floor several times. Accused admitted the truth of his wife’s statement. He said the child had messed on the kitchen floor, and accused had come to the end of his patience and had hit her.

Accused, who said his wife was always heating the child, started to weep when told of his impending arrest, and pleaded “don’t beat me up when you get me down there.” Corroborative evidence was given by Senior-Sergeant Smillie, who said the husband had, according to his wife, bashed the child’s head, face down, against the floor about six times on the afternoon of June 19. The child remained lying on the floor until attended by her mother.