NEGLECT OF A CHILD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18048, 23 September 1920, Page 5

NEGLECT OF A CHILD

MAN AND WIFE CHARGED. TREATMENT DIABOLICAL AND INHUMAN. ACCUSED SENTENCED TO THREE MONTHS' IMPRISONMENT. (Peb United Press Association.) ' CIIRISTCHURCH,' September 22. i- L. Jla Sktrate's Court, before Mr S. M Carthy, S.M., Herbert Charles Ross and Catherine Annie Henrietta Rosp, a young married couple, were charged, under section 23 of the Infants' Protection Act, \vith having- during the past six months wilfully neglected and exposed an illegitimate male cnild, age<l two years and i ln a '! itLruior likely to cause the child unnecessary suffering and injury to his health. IJjo evidence showed that the female accused was the mother of the child, anr '. tho putative father had been regularly paying maintenance. On September 14 a constable and a nurse in the employ of the . ; o Health Department visited the homo of the accused and found the child in a neglected and poorly clad condition, sitting on a hard chair in the yard. Its feet were swollen with large sores. Tho constable informed the inojjaer that the child seemed to be slowly dying, and she admitted she was unable to give it the care it should have, -here were three other children in tho family two the legitimate offspring of the accused and another illegitimate child. A medical man said the condition of the cluld named in the charge was duo to starvation and neglect. Tho accused denied that tho child had been starved, and stated that it had received the same nourishment as the other children. His \vorsbip remarked that the treatment extended to tho child l was diabolical and inhuman to tho last degree. Each accused was sentenced to three months' imprisonment.