CHARGE OF ILL-TREATING A CHILD

Otago Witness, Issue 1970, 22 August 1889, Page 3

CHARGE OF ILL-TREATING A CHILD

A SHOCKING STATE OF AFFAIRS, THE ABBOTTS COMMITTED FOR TRIAL. Ohbxbtchubch, August 19. At the Police Court to-day tho man Abbott and his wife, oharged with ill-treating and starving the child Esther Powdifcch, were brought up on remand. A great crowd gathered in and around the court, and the prisoners would probably have been hooted, if not actually hustled, bat that the police had taken precautions and conveyed them very early to the court. The child Fowditch was also present. Daring the week which has elapsed since the case was discovered she hits wonderfully altered in her appearance. In spite of the great improvement, however, due to good food and care, one witness, who had been accustomed to see her every day up to the time that -she went to the Abbotts, swore that he had much difficulty in recognising her. According to his graphic, it somewhat colloquial, veraion of the case, the child now looks "a regular old woman and knocked all to pieces." When taken to the hospital ehe measured 4ft 4£in and weighed 3st 121b. Godfrey, who originally adopted the child, deposed that she was always strong and healthy and of & lively disposition. He and Abbott had a mutual written agreement when the latter took charge of her. Two months ago Abbott wrote eaying that ha wished him to take the child back again, but he considered a bargain once made was made for ever, and threw the letter into the fire ftud took no further notice of his request. Adam Bloor, the same witness who had been hardly able to recognise Esther, said that for some time he had suspected Abbott of keeping the child a prisoner in tm house, as he never saw her playing with aooused's children ea formerly. Esther Powditch, 13£ years of age, swore that since the Abbotts removed to their last dwelling place she had been constantly maltreated and starved. She had been kept for as much as three days without food as a punishment for not getting on quickly with her work in the morning. Her work consisted of nursing tbe children, scrubbing, washing, and cleaning the stove. Her food was generally wheaten meal — sometimes with milk, but often without. She had never had bread and butter, tea, vegetables, pudding, or meat. When kept without food Mrs Abbott tied her up, sometimes twice a week, in a locked room, while Mr Abbott, who knew nothing of this, was away at work. She was beaten nearly every day by Mrs Abbott with a stick for being slow at her work. Mr Abbott himself never ill-treated her, bub once he threatened her, saying, "If I once lift my hand to you, you will never complain again " ; also that he knew the sort of food on which she lived, though ignorant of the beatings and tying up. In trying to tell the story of how she made her escape to some neighbours named Wyatt, to obtain food, after three days' starving, the child became dazed; and whpn describing how tbe woman Abbott on her return, plunged her head into a bucket of water, and kept her there, she burst out crying. This piece of cruelty also took place duriDg the absence of Mr Abbott ; and he was also out of the way, according to the child, when his wife pulled handfuls of hair out of her scalp. Mr Fisher's cross-exaroin&tion of the witness did very little to shake her evidence in chief; in fact, up to

the adjournment of the court, the prinolpal new fact elicited was that at times when the Abbotts had visitors they gave her the same kind of food as they ate themselves. An attempt w&s made to show that the hair came oat through disease, and that the braises were the result of falls, bat this was tmsncoessfal. An admission was also got from the poor little creature, who burst out crying from time to time, that she had stolen a plateful of cakes and some pickles and eaten them, as she had a packet oipinus insignia seeds, because Bhe was starving. An immense crowd surrounded the court to catch a glimpse of the child as she wbb taken away to the hospital. After the luncheon adjournment, Mrs Wyatt, a neighbour of the Abbotts, to whom the child Fowditch had fled for food, told how Esther had come to her for food, thin and 'star ved-looking, and eaten ravenously; how she' took~her back, and told the Abbotts that she looked more like a ghost than a living being ; how she offered to take her away ; and how next morning, when she went to the house again, she heard Mrs Abbott scolding, and saying that the ! child ought to be scourged and burnt for running away and telling lies to her (Mrs Wyatt). Evidence in the case was continued all the afternoon. Two neighbouring " women (to whom she had applied for food) and three doctors— viz., Drs Symes De Renzie (surgeon at the hospital), M'Bean, and Stewart— ail testified to the emaciated condition in which they found her. Meers (photographer) produced copies of photographs taken when first in the hands of the police, showing the soars and her condition. At 4 45 the case for the prosecution dosed. Mr Fisher applied for Abbott's acquittal. The Bench decided to send both the accused for trial, fixing bail the same as before — accused in £150 each, and two sureties in £150 on each charge. Bail was not forthcoming, and accused were removed to gaol amid an immense concourse of delighted spectators.