A BRUTAL MOTHER

Evening Star, Issue 12026, 26 October 1903, Page 8

A BRUTAL MOTHER

Ab Bideford (England) sessions, Frances Mary Bay, of Northam, near Bideford,. who is stated to be a person of good social position, was charged with assaulting, ill-treat-ing, neglecting, and. exposing her two children, Josn, aged fourteen, and Phyllis, aged ten, in a manner likely to cause them •unnecessary suffering and injury to health. The principal witness, Joan, stated that one night in Jumj her mother took her by the hair and shook her until it came out. On another occasion die was taken to a loft and tied up to a beam, and whilst in that position her mother struck her across the month and made her nose bleed. She was left in that position for about seven hours, and when slje was able to- release herself her arms .were black and bine, and the rope seemed to be buried in her flesh. About nine the same night she was permitted to enter the house to have a bath, and because it was alleged that she was too long about the operation she was sent back to the loft without any clothing, and there she remained the whote night. She found nn old skirt and put it on. Witness said she slept on the back-door mat on another occasion, and on tho following night she bad to make her bed on the stone floor of the washhouse, and water was thro-vm over her when she was called upon to wake. That was done by her sister Hope. When at Wimbledon her mother put witness's hand on the hot bar of the kitchen grate and burned it. On another occasion, because! she rooted up some seedsv her mother took a knife and chopped two pieces out of her arm and several pieces out of her Land. Several times she received a hundred strokes with a carpet-beater, when all her clothes had been taken off. She was put to lie on her face on the bed, and if she struggled she was strapped ; and at times she was beaten with a Malacca cane, and at others with a slipper. Once or twice she had a stocking tied around her neck by her mother, and pulled until she was nearly choked. Her mother had said to her: a trouble you. are; I wish you were never born," and had twisted witness's left ami till it broko above* the elbow. She had many times been put in a dark cupboard beneath the stairs, where there was no room either to stand up or lie down. She had bread to eat on Christmas Day. On January 14 her mother cut off all her hair, and in the night stopped her and put her into the garden. Witness remained there till four o'clock in the morning, when, the light iu.

her mother s zoom going out, she crept into the loft. It was a frosty night, and she was afraid to leave, because someone at intervals looked out to see if she was still where she was told to remain. In February last she was tied all night to the orchard gate, but she had on all her clothes. She was tied by the arm iu rather a crouching position, because the gate was low. On the following morning, at eight o'clock, her sister released her. She cried during the night, and her mother-told her "to stop her beastly noise." She did not like to say how she had the scais on her kinds when Br Valentine examined her, so she told him that they were the result of scratches from the hedge- and washing up, and the big one from falling down the steps. On the* first occasion she ran away she had been quarrelling with her sisters, and her mother threatened to keep her in Jaer bedroom/ She ran away on some occasions because she was afraid of her mother, and sometimes* of her, own will, because she -was cross. The first time she ran away her mother was ill in bed. On that occasioa her mother said she should go to bed. She did not always obey her mother. Dr Valentine stated that the marks which he. saw on the body of Joan were- consistent with the child's story. The injuries must have been, severe to have remained so long. The Bench committed the defendant to the nest quarter sessions at Exeter. Defendant.pleaded not guilty, and.resenEed.Jier defence.

Worse in Store.—Squire.: " Well,. 3?orbes, I hear your litfclo boy is a finished musKaan." Forbes: "Noa, zur; the neighbors ain't linisbed un yet; they've only threatened uu." Cruelty to a Mother-in-law. —Wife (emphatically;: "That dog of Smith's*across the way bit mother again this monring, and I want to know what you intend doiug about it." Husband (brutally): "I think I shall buy that dog."