FATAL ILL-TREATMENT OF A GIRL.

North Otago Times, Volume XIV, Issue 542, 26 July 1870, Page 7 (Supplement)

FATAL ILL-TREATMENT OF A GIRL.

t An inquiry lias tieeri held at Malton into tire oir-* ' .onmstanoea attending the death- of a young girl named ' Harriet Fox, 13 years old, ' the daughter ' of * •Ann Fox> of Appleton-le-street, who died in the Malton ■ Workhouse. 1^ The coroner explained that the girl hud - [lived 'with a farmer named Thomas Boddy, and that ,Mra. 'Eliza Elizabeth Boddy, his wife, had been 1 committed for trial on a charge of - assaulting the ' deceased; The jury would have to inquire whether .the death of the girl Fox resulted frem any aot of Mrs/ Boddy Mr. Dale, solicitor, York, appeared on behalf of Mrs. Eliza Elizabeth Boddy, and Mr. Samuel Walker,' of Malton, for the Malton Board of Guardians. ' The evidence tended to show that/ from Martinmas to April, the girl had been subjected to " persistent 'ill-treatment by Mrs. Boddy, who had struck her, Itioked at her frost-bitten heels, pat her in the pig- tub, thrown her among thorns, exposed her, struck her with a wooden spoon, had jumped upon ' her, and had not given her snffioient food. All, how- , ever, admitted thai Mrs. Boddy dressed her feet with "oils." The evidence of a witness, named George Shepherd, of Amotherby, with whom deoeasod had previonsly Hve'd, allowed that she was a healthy, ■ clean, and industrious, girl, and had nflVGr been ill. The inquiry waa adjourned.