Manslaughter Charge

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30879, 12 October 1965, Page 3

Manslaughter Charge

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, Oct. 11. The trial began in the Supreme Court, Wellington, today before Mr Justice McGregor and a jury of Judith Joyce Stevens, aged 21, a housewife, on a charge of manslaughter of her son, Trevor Janies Stevens, aged two and a half years, who died in Hutt Hospital on July 22.

Stevens is also charged with wilful ill-treatment causing him bodily harm. Three further charges relate to assaults on the buy. Stevens is represented by Mr D. S. Castle. Mr J. H. C. Larsen, for the Crown, said the boy had been admitted unconscious to the Hutt Hospital on July 19. He had injuries to the brain and died on July 22. Mr Larsen said the Crown alleged that the boy died ,-s the result of injuries inflicted by his mother. Rachael Marryatt Andrews, proprietor of a licensed foster home at Petone, said the boy was first brought to her home in 1963, when he was six months’ old. His parents first suggested that he be there for a month, but he was there for six months. He was brought back for varying periods until March of this year. RELUCTANT TO GO Mrs Andrews said he was a bright and happy boy at first but in December, after he had been with his parents for a fme, he had a frightened, haunted look and was reluctant to go home with his parents. She saw him three weeks or a month before his death. His condition was very poor. He had sores on his legs and

both he and his sister were very thin. The boy had a bruise on one side of his face and one on his arm whe brought to her place by his parents on that occasion. Florence Julia McFarlane, daughter of Mrs Andrews, said she often helped her mother to care for the children in her charge. She had noticed the brusing on the boy’s cheek about the end of last year. The accused had said that a cat had scratched the child’s face, but the father had said the boy had fallen off a fence. BOY BRUISED Dr. A. S. King said that Trevor was brought to his surgery by his parents on March 25 of this year. He had a number of bruises on the front of the chest, back and buttocks. He thought the child was slightly dull. To Mr Castle, Dr. King said that he deliberately did not teli the parents he thought the child had been unduly thrashed. He wished to have him X-rayed and had he voiced his suspicions the parents might not have had this done. “At that time I felt that the injuries were definitely of the battered baby syndrome,” witness said. Mr Justice McGregor: Will you please explain that to the jury. Witness: It is simply the name given to a host of complications which can result from a baby receiving direct violence.

Dr. Alan Edward Zohrab, medical registrar at Hutt Hospital, said he examined the

boy shortly after his arrival at the casulaty ward. He was deeply unconscious and had bruising over both cheeks and over the lower and upper limbs. There was also extensive bruising over his left side. The hearing will be continued tomorrow morning.