A SHOCKING CASE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVIII, Issue 91, 20 April 1914, Page 4

A SHOCKING CASE.

•'A shocking case/ 5 was Mr H. W. Bishop's reiterated remark at the Juvenile Court in Ghristchua-ch, on Thursday afternoon, in hearing an application made by the police for the committal of five children to a receiving home. The application (reports the Sun), was the outcome of a- charge of illegal intercourse brought against" a man, their stepfather, who was committed for trial an Thursday morning. The evidence given by the children, the eldest of which was thirteen years of age, certainly disclosed an awful condition of affairs. The children, seemed to have no real relation to either their step-parents, both of whom had been mairried three times, the children being the accretion of the various domestic states. The woman also admitted to having had five children by a former husband, all of whom were at present hi a receiving home. Mr Bishop referred to the actions of the man towards the two girls, 12 and 13 years of age, as more resembling those of a beast; "worse than a beast," said the elder girl sharply, and as precociously as she had made all her previous statements, and the Magistrate concurred. According to this child's evidence these relations had been going on for three1 years, and the matter had only just come to light through the girl acquainting the police on the advice of her stepmother. The children were ordered to be committed to a. receiving home. ,