BRUTAL PUNISHMENT
BOY’S FINGERS BURNT. STEPMOTHER SENT TO GAOL. A brutal method of punishing her stepson was, according to tho evidence in a police court case at Adelaide, adopted by Mary Beatrice Hehir, on March 2, when she was requested _ by his schoolmaster to administer punishment to,him for having stolen 8d from tho teacher’s desk. Mrs Hehir replied in a letter to tho head teacher that she would punish tho boy. Later she took the la cl, and holding his fingers over a lighted candio burnt eight of them, as she said, to represent the eight pennies which he stole. Tho boy was severely burnt, and suffered a great deal of pain. Ho was sent to bed without tea, and to school on the following morning without breakfast. Moreover, Mrs Hehir refused to allow him to bandage tho blistered fingers. A policewoman said that when she interviewed the defendant she said that she thought she was quite justified in having done what she had to tho boy. The magistrate, in imposing a sentence of two months’ imprisonment on Mrs Hehir, said that she did not appear to lie in any way sorry for what she had clone. There was no excuse for such a cruel method of punishment.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ESD19230402.2.103
Bibliographic details
Evening Star, Issue 18239, 2 April 1923, Page 9
Word Count
208BRUTAL PUNISHMENT Evening Star, Issue 18239, 2 April 1923, Page 9
Using This Item
Allied Press Ltd is the copyright owner for the Evening Star. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons New Zealand BY-NC-SA licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Allied Press Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in