NEGLECT OF CHILDREN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26025, 13 December 1945, Page 2

NEGLECT OF CHILDREN

FATHER IMPRISONED The four children had been allowed to wander around, under-fed and under-clothed, just like street waifs, said Senior Sergeant J. J. Kearns in the Magistrate’s Court at Christchurch, when the father, Charles Henrv Close, admitted four charges of wilfully neglecting the children in a manner likely to cause them unnecessary suffering. It was a terrible thing that children were neglected by their parents to the extent that these children had been, when the financial means were available to maintain them in decency and happiness, said the magistrate, Mr R. Ferner, S.M., in sentencing Close to six weeks’ imprisonment with hard labour. The four children were now in the care of the Child Welfare Department, said the senior sergeant. The accused was addicted to drink, and had taken no interest in them at all. Close was not mentally strong, said Mr A. J. Malley, who appeared for the defendant. He had served in the first World War for four years and had suffered from fever. He did not realise his responsibilities. The accused was receiving £6 10s a week free of tax, said Miss H. Burnett, an officer of the Child Welfare Department. .