WIFE’S EVIDENCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21102, 12 August 1930, Page 13

WIFE’S EVIDENCE.

WITNESS AGAINST HUSBAND. “IT WAS SO TERRIBLE.” A wife gave evidence for the prosecution in a murder charge against her husband at Barnet (Herts) Police Court The husband was accused of murdering his seven-months-old baby. The wife said her husband had been devoted to her until this last baby. That was why it seemed so terrible that she had got to go against him. • The defending solicitor asked: “Who told you that you had got to give evidence? In all your experience have you heard of a woman giving evidence against her husband on a capital charge? Do you know to-day that you occupy an almost unique position. t” The wife; 1 am sure what he did was not a wilful act. The accused man was Sidney Joseph Strand, aged 35, grocer, of Baron’s Gate, East Barnet. FOUND BABY GASPING. Mrs Mabel Gertrude Strand, the wife, said she found the baby gasping. She called a neighbour, and a doctor was sent for. “ I asked my husband," said Mrs Strand, “ what he had done, and he said he had taken the baby by the shoulders and must have shaken it too much. I did not question him any further because I was anxious to save the baby’s life. Mr Vincent Evans (for the Public Prosecutor) : Has your husband ever threatened the child in any way in front of you? Mrs Strand: Yes. He has threatened to kill me and the baby. Mrs Strand said that twice her husband has flicked a lighted candle over the child. Replying to Mr Alfred W. Fryzer (for Strand), Mrs Strand said that her husband had always been a loving father to the other children. Sir Bernard Spilsbury, the Home Office pathologist, said that the child had died from coma by hemmorrhage round the brain. This, in his opinion, was caused by violent pressure. Strand was remanded.