CHARGES OF CRUELTY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9229, 17 June 1893, Page 2 (Supplement)

CHARGES OF CRUELTY.

-» EXTRAORDINARY ALLEGATIONS AGAINST A MOTHER. Titb Cheater County Justices recently had before them a remarkable case, Constance Phelan, a married lady, residing at Sunnyside, Upton, near Chester, being charged at the instance of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children with systematic ill-treatment of her child Ernest, aged 17 months, on divers ilatoa between February 23 and March 25. Mrs. Sarah Prince, who had boon in the employment of the defendant as housemaid and nurse, gave evidence as to a number of alleged instances of brutality on the part of the mothor. Generally speaking she said the child was thrashed every morning. The very firat day the witness was there the mother, eho alleged, gave the baby two good kicks in the Jtom.ich and pulled its hair. On another occasion, Mrs. Phelan, the witness asserted, struck the child over the face, and then took hold of its head and banged it against the bed-railing for two or three minutes, and then strapped up the child':* leg. On yet another occasion, the witness declared, Mrs. Phelan knockod the child about the head with her hand, getting hold of its hair and banging ib about, saying she would not have a crying child, and put her finger down its throat to stop it from crying. Mr*. Phelan said to witness while in the bathroom that the child must have a thundering good whacking evoiy day becauso the devil was in it, and it had never been baptised. A laundress who had also lefb Mrs. elan's service gave confirmatory evidence. One day when the child was crying Mrs. Phelan kicked ib in the side several times. On another occasion she ordered witness to strap it to the leg of the bod. Witness did bo strap ib, anil left ib there, Ib was a very cold night, and there was no fire in the room. Ths gas was lit, but Mrs. Pholan lowered it as much as she could and left the child there alone, shutting the door. Ib was left like that about three-quarters of an hour. She unloosed the child when she put the other boy to bed. One night witness was bathing baby, when Mrs. Pholan came in and punched it in the ribs with her fist for about two minutes. One night she and Prince counted thirty two bruises on Ernest's body. Cross-examined : The boy did not get any of the bruises by tumbling about. The children were well fed, as Mrs. Phelan said she must feed them well to stand the hammering sho gave them. One day she told her that she gave it a thundering good whacking in the morning to last it until night, and then another one at night to last it till morning. Mrs. Phelan, called, gave a categorical and explicit denial to every charge. The child ; had, she said, been strapped to the bedstead in the nursery with plenty of room to crawl about to prevent ib from getting near the fire or injuring itself. The bruises on the child's body might have been caused by knocking itself against, the sharp iron rim of the bath. The child had been baptised. In cross-examination, Mrs. Phelan described Prince as a most impudent and c'-'irespoct--1 fill servant. Dr. Alexander Hamilton said he had examined the child, and found several bruises such as were frequently found on children beginning to walk. The child was wellnourished and healthy. There was no breaking of the akin in the case of any bruise. , Daniel Francis Phelan, the father, said the child frequently fell in its endeavour to walk. Ha had never seen the child strapped in the way described. Ho would have strapped those who did It. The Bench then committed Mrs. Phelan to take her trial at the Quarter Sessions.