CHILDREN STARVED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22722, 7 May 1937, Page 11

CHILDREN STARVED

MANSLAUGHTER CASE

TRIAL OF PARENTS CONTINUES

LONDON, May 5 The trial was continued to-day of Percy and Lilian Davies, who are charged with the manslaughter of their two children, aged three years and 19 months respectively. The case for the prosecution is that defendants quarrelled on March 5, that the husband took lodgings on March 6, and his wife called at her sister's home on March 6 and stayed there until she was arrested ou March 18. The wife said that she Left her husband because he was paying attention to another woman. She put the children to bed before her departure and left a note telling her husband where she had gone. The children were found dead on March 18. They had been without food in a bedroom for 12 days. Death was due .to exhaustion, after starvation, probably eight days after their desertion.

The judge ruled that there was evidence to go to the jury. The husband gave evidence he had not the remotest idea that nobody was looking after the children. He left home because his wife had not"a clean shirt for him. He found the bodies when he went home to obtain a uniform for a territorial parade. The wife, in evidence, said she did not realise that her husband was leaving home permanently. The hearing was adjourned.