TRAGEDY OF PAIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15234, 22 February 1913, Page 2 (Supplement)

TRAGEDY OF PAIN.

MOTHER CHARGED WITH MURDER A MOTHEit who for 13 years had watched the' almost incessant suffering of a sick daughter, and at last apparently broke down under {ho strain, was helped into the dock at Clerkenwell Police Court recently, and sat, a pathetic figure, listening tea. charge against her of murdering the child. ;,'■■• The woman was Mrs. Edith Wood, aged 45, of Widdenham Road, Holloway, who was stated to have walked into i the Caledonian Road Police Station that morning in an excited manner and said she wished to give herself up. On visiting the house the police found the body of thei little girl, Ethel Harriet, . aged 13, lying in. bed with a piece of cord knotted about the neck. Artificial respiration proved unavailing, Detective-Inspector Neil said that when told she would be charged, Mi's. Wood had said : "Yes, 1 know. I don't know what made me do it,. She badi a fit and was so bad I took a cord and tied it round her neck to put her out of her i misery. I have been much worried about her lately." Asked in court if she had i anything to say, the poor woman could only shake her ;. head, and, in remanding i her, Mr. d'Eyncourt ordered her removal j in a cab. :;-;; ■■ A Pitiful Story. -;'-.-'■';■;.■ ;■■■■'/-,] Behind the brief statement repeated in i court there lies a pitiful tragedy following on years of patient devotion. From birth the child Ethel had suffered from an enlarged brain, with consequent incessant illness and sever© fits, and great suffering. Two years ago Mrs. Wood's health gave way under tho never-ceasing strain of nursing her, and the result, according to the mother's own story, was tho tragedy.. . / . Some additional details were given by Mr. Wood. "My wife," he said, "has been one of the most patient" and devoted of mothers to Ethel ever since the child's birth, and I am sure would have been the last in the world to harm her or anyone else under ordinary circumstances. When I left home everything seemed as usual, and Ethel, who had been more poorly even than was her wont, was still in bed. From what I can gather she had' a fit about ten .o'clock t and ray wife went upstairs to her, as she usually did, to try and sootho her sufferings. We can do no more than surmise the rest. Ethel', always had a terrible time during these attacks, and my wife, over-wrought in her delicate state of health, and maddened by the sight of the child's sufferings, performed what she no doubt considered at the time a merciful act. Although there was a servant and a younger child in the house, neither seems to have had an inkling of the tragedy that was being enacted so near to them. My wife came downstairs, telling the servant she was going to fetch the doctor to Ethel. Her' manner seemed somewhat' hysterical; but as it has been so periodically for. the last 18-months or so, no notice was taken. Apparently she passed the doctor's house and went straight to the police."