VILE TORTURE

Evening Star, Issue 25941, 5 November 1946, Page 7

VILE TORTURE

MOTHER’S CRUELTY TO YOUNG CHILD

A HORRIBLE INDICTMENT

(Rec. 10.55 a.m.) LONDON, Nov. -4

“ This is the worst case of cruelty to a child it has ever been my misfortune ‘to handle,” said the Protection Society’s inspector giving evidence before a court trying a London mother, Mary Tiehner. The inspector said that in a family of seven there .was cruelty against only one child, the eignt years old daughter Jean. She was half-starved, with her bones nearly protruding. There was hardly an inch of her body not marked with sores, scars, and bruises. Her nose was flattened, her lips bruised and swollen, and her left toes deeply cut. The child said her mother cut her with a knife, and her right foot was burned. The child said she had been burned with a ' lighted stick and matches. The inspector added that the torture was apparently inflicted because the child, who was hungry, stole some apples. The palm of one hand was widely burned. The child' said her mother held her hand over the lighted lamp. The inspector said the child was not tortured in the heat of the moment or when the mother was under the influence of drink, but over a, period of many months when the child was kept in solitary confinement. 'The father made no effort to prevent the brutalities, although aware of them. The case was adjourned to November 6 when Jean broke down while giving her evidence,