HORRIBLE NEGLECT of a WIFE. C

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6566, 2 December 1882, Page 2 (Supplement)

HORRIBLE NEGLECT of a WIFE. C

Some shocking facts transpired at tie Eafield Petty Sessions when Francis Desportes, 4S. a Frenchman, residiDg at EdmOHtos, described as a designer, was charged with neglecting to provide for his wife. Tie w oman, uot having been seen for some tint by the neighbours, and the house being apparently empty, the police were sjxilea to, and an inspector, after failing to tbtaia admission, procured a ladder, and withiti aid looked iu at the front floor room anJ aw what appeared to be the lifeless bodyo/a woman, lie then, accompanied by the relieving officer, burst open one of the back doorr? and proceeded upstairs, where a most horrible sitriit presented itself. The womaD whom thc"y had seen on the floor suit* dead, but was lying in a corner of rhe rota in r. shocking condition, without any clothii/! whatever upon her, but covered from head to root with vermin, She was in sach an exhausted condition from want of she could neither stand nor speak, and the police surgeon pronounced her dying frw* want. Neither food, furniture, nor clothingcould be found in the house, and the only thing with which the officers couH corer to woman was a dirty blind which they tendown from the window. She being in M» weak a condition for removal, some clotojj and a mattras3 were procured, on which she was placed, and nourishment somifljstered. When she rallied a little she informed the officers that she bad been in tfce neglected state they found her fer severs! days. It transpired daring the hearing 01 the case that the woman was to live, as owing to the fearful conditwa "» which she lay, her flesh was in p«e tte "- stroyed. "When latt seen by the neighbors she was eating raw cabbage leaves. ■Uβ defendant who was arrested next CiJ » Knfielfl Railway Station, said tbis *»-?{« his wife, but a woman whom hebad«« living with for a number of years. _.»''*•* 1 remanded to the house of Detention ior» week to see how the woman progressed.