BABY MURDERED

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 September 1923, Page 2

BABY MURDERED

ASHBURTON HORROR.

(Per Press Association.)

ASHBURTON, Sept. 20.

A lonely farmstead, a mile from Dromore, seven miles from Ashburton, was the scene of a shocking tragedy at eight o’clock this morning, when a three months’ old child was killed by a large nail being driven into its head. The child’s uncle, Thomas Jamison, understood to be afflicted both mentally and physically, was arrested and will come before the Court this afternoon. Details gathered by the police indicate that the mother, Ellen Jane Jamison, left the child on the bed while she prepared its food. Returning a few minutes she saw the child bleeding and dying. She rushed out and found her brother George in a field. George discovered Thomas in his own room crying and whining. He locked him in a loose box in the stable. A doctor arrived shortly before death, and found a four inch nail had been driven into the child’s head behind the ear. It was also jabbed above the face with a nail. The arrested man is painfully afflicted and twisted as if with rheumatism. He speaks with difficulty and has been locked up in a padded cell.