KEPT SPIRITS AWAY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22586, 15 March 1948, Page 5

KEPT SPIRITS AWAY

GIRL’S LIFE IN SECLUSION MOTHER PROSECUTED LONDON, Feb. 24. Thirteen-year-old Elizabeth Sunderland told the Plymouth Court today that her mother kept an umbrella open on the floor of one of the rooms in which they lived to keep away evil spirits. Describing the atmosphere of seclusion, superstition and squalor in which she was brought up, Elizabeth said: "Mother always kept a bowl of liquid in the room, keeps clocks from stopping and stops neighbours’ radios from playing too loudly. Sometimes, she locked me in the storeroom from 10 a.m. till 11 p.m., because she thought my presence in the living room brought on the wireless. “I was not allowed to play with other children. Mother used to take me to school and stay with me until the bell rang, take my hat and coat away and meet me at noon to take me home for lunch- She took me back at 2 p.m. and met me again at 4. “I had a bath in a tub once or twice a year.” Elizabeth’s mother, a widowed South American, Mrs. Lira Sunderland, who cannot speak English, was summoned for having neglected her child and was remanded for a medical report. She was given permission to see her daughter but Elizabeth, who was taken away from her mother six weeks ago, refused to go to her.