ALLEGED INFANTICIDE.

Evening Star, Issue 13014, 8 January 1907, Page 4

ALLEGED INFANTICIDE.

CHARGE AGAINST MARY KEARNEY. At the Police Court this morning, before ' Mr A. Y. Widdowson, S.M., Mary Kearney ■was charged that she did, - on the 11th Decemfier, at Dunedin, wilfnlly kill and murder her nbwiy-bom female child; Mr Irwin appeared for ■ accused, and pleaded not guilty. x ’ Sub-inspector Black, who appeared for the police, said that about the Ist December last accused went to the house of Elizabeth Pye, a boarding-house, • iii ; Stuartstreet, engaged board and lodging at 15s a week, and stayed there till the 10th. Nothing unusual was noticed aboAt her. On the 10th she remained in bed. Miss Pye saw her two or three tiincs that day, and offered her food, which accused refused. Miss Pye offered to send for a doctor, but tho accused objected. In the end Miss Pye did send for a doctor, and Dr Watt went to the house and saw accused in her room. Tho doctor suggested that he should make an examination. Accused would not allow this. The doctor on leading the house suggested to Miss Pye that she should obtain for him what information she could from accused. Miss Pye did so, and told the doctor what little more she learned. Tfiat night sho saw accused again, and said she did not caro.jp have anyone ill in her bouse, and! suggested that she should leave. “Next morning accused said she felf better. Eater on Miss Pye, in passing accused's room, noticed that the bed was empty. On going into the room she saw that the bedclothes were thrown back, %nd that there were no sheets. She went in search of tho accused, and found her in the washhouse washing. Accused told her that she was washing the sheets. Miss Pye said she would have no more washing there. She locked np the washhouse, and accused went back to her room. Miss Pye next saw her there. Accused was dressed for going out. Miss Pye said she could not go till the police were communicated with. Sergeant BaskiyQle was sent up, and saw accused in the sitting room, and she ‘admitted to hun that she had given birth to a child at about two o clock that morning. Sim said the child was in the bedroom. He went to the room, and there found a pared on a chair. He examined *t, and found it to bo a child’s body wrapped up in a woman’s chemise and brown paper and tied with string. There were also smaller parcels. Accused admitted that the parcels were hers. The sergeant called a cab, and took the accused and the parcels to the Police Station. There the accused gave her addrees as Invercargill, and gave what purported to be the name and address of her parents. Inquiries were subsequently made but no such people could be found iu Invercargill. Accused was sent to the hospital and the child to the morgue. Dr Gordon Macdonald, as the result of a superficial examination of-the body, gave it as his opinion that tho child had breathed before death- On the 13th he made a post mortem examination, and would say that ho had no doubt that the child had lived for some time after birth. It was afterwards ascertained Chat the girl had not lived at Invercargill, but at Moasbnrn, and that she had been in service m Dunedm some time before she went to Miss l ye a. Elizabeth Pye said she was a single woman and kept a boarding-house in Stuart street. The accused came to her house about December 1 last for board and lodging, which she engaged for a week. Accused had her meals regularly, and witness noticed nothing wrong about her. Un the 10th witness visited accused m her room in the morning, and accused said she was not feeling very well. Witness wont on to give evidence precisely on the lines of the sub-inspector’s opening. During the time accused was in witness s hone© she made no preparations (in the way oi making baby clothes or otherwise) for the coming of a child. Witness had no reason to suspect what the real cause of accused s illness was. .. Under cross-examination witness said she sent for the police because she was afraid that if accused went out of tho house to see the doctor she might leave her parcels behind her and never come back. The reason she refused to allow any further washing to be done was that she did not know what accused’s illness might have been. * James Watt, duly qualified medical practitioner, described his visit to accused on the 10th. As the result of a superficial examination he suspected pregnancy, but the accused would not’allow him to examine her thoroughly. Was led to believe that he was being called in against accused’s will. Robert Gordon Macdonald gave details of his examination of the body of the child. He came to the conclusion that the child had been born alive. Its body was quite warm, and he should say it had then been dead for two or three hours. That was at about 11 a.m. A post mortem was held ojn the 15ih- The child apparently died from suffocation. There was no possibility of witness being mistaken, an the child had lived after birth. To Mr Irwin : It was possible that the child might have been suffocated before the mother was in a state to give it much help—that was under these particular cir-

Walter Joseph Baskivillc, police sergeant, said that ha want to Miss Pye’s houaa on the Uth, at about 11-15 a.m., as the reeult of information received. Acting on what Miss Pyo told ten, ho saw Misa Kjearoey in the dining room. Witness asked her if she was ill, and she made no reply. Ho said that if she was ill she should see a doctor. She begun to cry. Further questioned, accused said that she had given. With to a child at two o'clock that morning, and that tha child was dead when bom. She said the <d4ld was in her bedroom. Farther questioned, accused said that she had told Um doctor she was unwell, but that wlien be had asked leave to examine her she had said she would rather be did not. Witness then asked Mias Pye to stay with accused while he want to her room- Witness described the room as ho then saw it. There was a parcel about 18in long on a chair. When ho lified it be found it was weighty. The parcel was -composed of brown paper, a lady’s macintosh, and a lady’s undergarment, inside which was the body of a fullydeveloped female child- The body was warm, and there were no brutes, hut the face Ipofced discolored. There was no baby clothing in tho room. Witness then gave accused her bat and boa, got a cab, and took her to tho Police Station. Afterwards he took her to tho hospital, and took the body of the child to the morgue. This concluded the case for the Crown. Accused reserved her defence, and .was committed for trial at tho next sitting of the Supreme Court. His Worship said! he would take time to consider the question of bail, which he was disposed to grant on Mr Irwin s application, Aocosed was therefore remanded to Thursday. -