LITTLE NOT WANTEDS.

NZ Truth, Issue 347, 17 February 1912, Page 5

LITTLE NOT WANTEDS.

ABANDONED BABE'S BIRTH CONCEALED. FOUL INFANT MURDER AT AUCKLAND. Desposing of Her Dead Infant's Body. Margaret Burke, who pleaded guilty m the Magistrate's Court to a charge of concealment of birth, came up for sentence at the Supreme Court on Mpnday.' Lawyer Donnelly mentioned that she was twenty-two years of age, and had lost both of her parents when she was a young girl. During the' last five or six years she had toiled for her own living, following the occupations of a domestic servant. Mr Justice Denniston: For whom there is always a demand. Counsel.- concurred. Her character • HITHERTO HAD BEEN GOOD and she had had no previous experience so far as anything of this kind was concerned. While m service at an hotel where the child was born she had become unexpectedly ill. She had saved a little money and had intended to go to Wellington for her confinement, but became ill and her illness deprived her of her means. She had no one m recent years to advise her m these matters. The man who had been the cause of her trouble left her immediately, but .another man, who was a respectable person, had a great regard for her, and was prepared to marry her if the court extended leniency to her. His Honor, said it was not a question of protecting the individual. There- were so many facilities for the woman to say that the child, had not been born alive that there was a temptation to destroy life when THE CHILD WAS -NOT WANTED. Mr Donnelly said that this girl had already undergone punishment of a very humiliating character. Probably no man was capable of appreciating the punishment a young female went through m such cases. His Honor put a hypothetical case to counsel. Suppose a young woman said, "If I get rid of this cMld there will lie no more about it; but even if I'm caught I go before the court and get off on probation." It was an obvious temptation for a young mother when she was alone and the child was not legitimate.

The girl was ordered to come up for sentence when called upon. Then, addressing Mr Donnelly, he said, "Your friend m the background will have, to act up to what you have said."

Counsel said he didn't think there was any doubt about that.

l__4____fCatret was also ordered to pay

£5, costs of the prosecution. "In England for many years," concluded his Honor, "the sentence was invariably eighteen months." A RECRUIT. FOR BOOTH. Mary Ann Cosgrove, a girl of twen-ty-one, pleaded guilty to a charge of disposing of the body of her infant child on December 11, 1911, at Cairnbrae. Solicitor Harry Goodman said that the girl's record had been clean up till now. When interviewed by the detective she confessed and gave information as to where the body would be found. The girl was consigned to the tender mercies of Booth's loud religionists for a period of five months. A VERDICT OF MURDER. The discovery of a body of an infant girl near Wynyard pier, Auckland, last Sunday morning, provided the latest sensation for the Queen City. .'—■'.' On that day a number of excursionists were preparing to leave the pier for the various .holiday resorts iii the harbor, when, tb the horror of everyone, the naked body of a tiny infant was seen floating about quite near to the pier. Dr. Moir, happening to be quite handy, waded m and * BROUGHT THE BODY TO LAND, from whence the waterside police removed it to the morgue, where, before Mr T. :Gresham, City Coroner, last Monday > an inquest was held. Dr. Girder said that. the body was that of a fully-developed female child, not less than . three weeks' old at the time of death. The body presented all the appearances of having been m the water for about a week. The indications were that the child had lived for . at least eight days. It transpired that on the skull was visible a large bruise at the back of the head— which must have been caused during life, and likely 7 J RESULT OF A HEAVY BLOW. Certainly it was the outcome of some sort of violence. No obstruction of any kind was contained m the windpipe or larynx, leaving room for the inference to be drawn that the child was dead when committed to the bosom of the deep.. Corroborating the evidence of his brother practitioner, Dr. Moir said he thought death was due to the blow which had been found on the back of the child's cranipm. The Coroner commented on the fact that the. babe had been thrown into the water with no clothes on, giving rise to the suggestion that the guilty party did not intend to leave any clue, therefore the theory of accidental drowning could not be established. If the child had lived as long as medical evidence asserted, then several people knew of its existence. The verdict; 'unanimously returned, was murder against some person or persons unknown.