EX SISTER LIGOURI.

Otago Witness, Issue 3512, 5 July 1921, Page 17

EX SISTER LIGOURI.

CATHOLIC BISHOr SUED. SYDNEY, June 30. The hearing lias commenced of the case wherein ex-Sister Ligouri is suing Bishop 'Dwyer, Roman Catholic Bishop of Wagga, for alleged malicious arrest, whcrehy her reputation was injured and she suffered great pain in body and mind. Damages Amounting to £SOOO are claimed. Belendant’s pica is “not guilty.” lie disclaims causing plaintiff’s am t or iinprisoiimeiit. Great public interest is displayed. Tne court was crowded, a long queue waiting outside, for hours before it opened. A strong Bar has been engaged by each side. Counsel for plaintiff submitted a letter written by plaintiff to Bishop Dwyer

after she liad left the convent wherein she stated that her health broke down at the convent, and when she asked for medicine the doctor gave her poison to end her life. Cross-examined, Ex-sister Ligouri stated that when she returned to tlie convent after her first escape she was given a dose of castor oii, the sister who gave it to her saying, “ Here's your dose of oil When you have had this you will not want another dose. You won't get out of bed tor the next six months.” Becoming alarmed after taking the oil she drank soapy water as an emetic, and while the sister was out of the room she escaped in her night dress to a bourse nearby. She came thence to Sydney, where she was arrested. I July 1. I The Ligouri case was continued to-day.

Ex-Sister Ligouri, cross-examined, said that the mother superior of the convent, a sister, arid a doctor were implicated in a conspiracy to murder her. Although she had no cold, the sister con cerned said to her: “You will die of pneumonia. It is a wonder that you are not dead now.” Ex-Sister Ligouri added that she was sick for fully a week from the effects of the poison which war. ad ministered to her, but although when she escaped she was interviewed by the ponce she did not mention the alleged attempted poisoning to them. She admitted that when the bishop paid his usual episcopal visit to the convent she told him that she was perfectly contented and happy : but she was forced to say this, as it would not have fared well with her if she had said otherwise.

[A cablegram which was received bur August staled that much public interest was being shown in the case of Sister Ligouri, a nun, who escaped from the convent at Wagga. and was brought to Sydney, where she took refuge in ihe house of a Congregational minister until she was arrested under a warrant issued at the instance of the Roman Catholic Bishop of the diocese on an information selling out that Bridget Partridge, otherwise Bister Ligouri, was a person deemed to be insane and without person deemed to be insane and without. sufficient means of support. The medical experts, having adjudged her sane, she was immediately discharged, and left amid demonstrations with those who have befriended her since she escaped from the convent.]