HALF-WITTED VICTIM OF FOUL BETRAYAL

NZ Truth, Issue 1173, 24 May 1928, Page 5

HALF-WITTED VICTIM OF FOUL BETRAYAL

Tortured By liifcintile Paralysis, Mentally Unbalanced, She Fell Easy Prey To Unscrupulous Men GIRL-MOTHER'S EVIDENCE 'REVEALS HER PITIFUL IGNORANCE ■/'. (From ."N.Z.", Truth's" Special Wellington > Representative.) Poor May Curtis! Half-witted, her docile, ox-like eyes gazing Vacantly at a world she cannot comprehend; her brain numb and her mind a void through which have fled the spectres of unhappiness and wanton caresses. Already has she borne three children of misfortune, and she is but 2 1. ..

TTWO years ago .a man took advantage 1 of her pitiful ignorance and less

than a year later she plunged into motherhood, bearing ' a .child who already is handicapped by a. terrible heritage of formless wanderings through a world of ; unsympathy and misunderstanding.

But the man was found and m terms of money he .must make recompense for the gross betrayal of a mentally unbalanced girl; May Curtis paid through the Calvary of Motherhood, the most exquisite agony known, to humankind.

She later fell an easy prey to the desires of ■ another man and the pitiful result of their . intimacy .was recorded m a ward of the Alexandra Home, Wellington; last month, where her twin babies first uttered their thin, wailing cries. ■■■:'■

She declared that George Haley, at one time a lodger m the home of her adopted mother, Mrs. Highsted, of Palmerston North, was the father of the twins.

Although her poor, vacillating mind tried to remember the incidents and dates, which, she said, found consummation m her maternity, neither she nor her counsel, Ijawyer Raymond, could adduce a coherent narrative concerning the alleged intimacies, and Magistrate P.age was constrained to deliver judgment against her.

Before May came into the court to give her testimony, her counsel explained to the bench that many years ago she had suffered the torturing agony of infantile paralysis, the result of which, added to her. predisposition to mental disorder, . had absolutely unbalanced her.

Not only was she unable to read, but she could neither tell the time nor had she any idea as to when certain events took place. .. '•' . .

When Court Orderly Warren called her name she shuffled ; into , court, her listless, lack-lustre eyes staring with that piteous apathy of * the mentally deficient

She looked uncompreheridlngly at the orderly as he showed her where the witness-box stood.

Whilst Warren administered the oath, her gaze wandered over the faces of those before her and when she was told to say: "I do," after promising to speak the truth, she repliedin" a voice whose attendant mind had -long forsaken the course of definite direction.

"Haley— George Haley— is "the

father of those children," she' said to her 'lawyer, when he questioned her. "I first met " him when he came to our place. ;

"About a week afterwards — one Saturday evening — he called me into his room and , took advantage of me . . .. Mother and father were out.

' "Improper relations took place on other occasions. Quite a . lot of times.

"My mother told me I was going to have a baby — I didn't know anything about.it.

"Haley gave me a ring just before I went away and told me it was our engagement ring.

"He came to see me on Christmas 'j Day and asked me how I was getting on.

"I asked him if he was going to pay the expenses of the children and he

"When you went m, -what did he, do?" The girl replied that he had behaved m "an improper manner. i ; Did you resist him?— No, but 1 told him to. stop. , ■. ; : ; > .. ■ ' ■ "When; did it happen again? — Another Saturday.! • • ; • ■■ For nearly two and a-half.' hours did this child of :. misfortune sit huddled m the chair provided for her, subjected to question arid re-examination, but the lifeless expression which human, eyes reflect from the depths of an inanimate mind never once ; left her face m a moment of; indignation or annoyance. Emily Highsted, who adopted May Curtis, said;, that when the. girl came back from a holiday m Wellington, she asked her some questions concerning her condition. She then : discovered that her adopted: daughter was. again m trouble. . . , The mother went immediately to Haley, who, when confronted with the suggestion that he was responsible for May's condition, said: "Me, Mrs. Highsted?" To which she retorted! "Yes, you, Digger!" Mrs. Highsted then related to the court how Haley had later taken her aside, admitting improper behavior on two occasions. "He afterwards told me," declared the woman, "that a ring had been stolen from hisfbag — that May had it. This was at two o'clock m the morning, when he came home drunk. "After that h& said: 'Oh, don't take it from the girl, missus, I gave it to her. It'll be all right.'

• "He left my house m January, swearing he was. not responsible for May's

to her early the following morning, asking her .what she .thought she was doing there, she just seemed : to make a joke of it. ■ : : ' .

"Some time later, I- told Mrs. Highsted about .it. She' broke out crying, begging me not to Bay anything about it to Mr;* Highsted, as she said, she had one-home, broken :. up. before and she didn't* want a repetition' of it. .

"Never before January last did Mrs. Highsted speak to me ,of my responsibility for the two children born In April.. ..:. . •

; "The ring which the girl; Bays I gave her was not given her at' all. "It iwas the engagement - ring of my late wife, which I kept m my suitcase, and it wasn't until a few weeks before Christmas, when- 1 was looking through my bag, that I discovered the ring had gone. • ' ' "When I asked Mrs. -Highsted about it she replied: 1 dortt know- where the ring is/Digger. May. must have it.' "When I was m Wellington at Christmas time I went to see the girl;' more out of sympiathy than anything else, and while there I asked her about the ring, but she-

told me her mother had it.

"I went back to Palmerston North a Bhort while afterwards, but; Mrs; Highsted denied all knowledge of the ring"."

When the. issue was decided against her, May betrayed no feeling of/ inward despair or mortification. ' She just. looked dully. at the magistrate, rose from her seat and shuffled out- af t^r- her mother, mutely , accenting something she could hot understand, unable to bring from out of the past any memory of ,the face ; whose owner had betrayed her simple soul. nfiHSirrTTnrrmiiimn'jinEiifTTiHiiinsmuininninritiiiiiiniifnisiiiiiHntniifiniMniuiiiniiiuitiiiiM'iliD