THE FATE OF A CHILD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15521, 31 January 1914, Page 9

THE FATE OF A CHILD.

' VERDICT BY THE JURY. CHARGE AGAINST FATHER.

j .... 61 Telegraph.—Press Association—Copyright . . (Beoeived January 31. 13.35 a.m.)

London, January 30.

The inquest was resumed yesterday ' 'on the body of the little boy named Starchneld, who on January 8 was

sent on an errand by his mother, »nd-did not return, his body after-wards-being found in a railway carriage at Shoreditch. The child had been strangled. At the last sitting of the inquest, a witness said ilia saw the boy near the railway station with his father, who is a newsvendor. Tho father, however, vehemently denied that he was with .- the child that day. Barry, a friend of the father, yesterday said that both were in bed on the afternoon of the rauider.

• Sin* Starchfield, recalled, affirmed v that ;i she saw Barry in the street after mid-day, and told the landlady.

John White, a commercial traveller, said he saw Starchfield and the boy. at Camden Town station about two o'clock.on January 8.

Starchfield interrupted at this point, exclaiming: "It's a lie" Barry added: "It must have been his double."

The coroner, in summing up, said there was no evidence against anyone except the father.

The jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against the father. After the verdict Mrs. Starchfield collapsed, sobbing piteously. Her husband was arrested. He displayed no emotion. He served in the South African war and received 20s weekly from the Carnegie hero fund after the affair in which he helped to arrest a foreigner who bad ran amok with a revolver.