SUICIDE AT ELEVEN.
"I have never before known of a child so young to take her own life," was the comment of Dr Harrison, ooroner for North Essex, in investigating the circumstances of the death of Florence Staples, whose body was found in a pond ait Pafctiswick. near Braintree._ The child was an orphan, boarded out with a farmer named James Alston, from the Southwark Union Mrs Alston informed the jury that she struck the child with a whip because of a small theft. The girl ran away, and a search was made for her all night, without success. The body was found next moming. The child had previously remarked what an easy death drowning would be, and said "I should like to be drowned." Mrs Alston denied that she iill-treated the chiid or had kept her ehort of friod. The inspector from Southwark Guardians had always been sat : sfjpd with what she did for this child, and two others boarded with her. The jury found that the child drowned herself whilst in a fit of fear or passion, and there was not sufEcipnt evidence to prove that she was ill-used by her foster-parents.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Star, Issue 12870, 20 July 1906, Page 8
Word Count
194SUICIDE AT ELEVEN. Evening Star, Issue 12870, 20 July 1906, Page 8
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