WIFE ALLEGES BRUTAL TREATMENT

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 71, 27 July 1929, Page 6

WIFE ALLEGES BRUTAL TREATMENT

PUT OUT OF HOUSE IN NIGHTGOWN. EXTRAORDINARY evidence. Press Association —f^opyngnt AUCKLAND, July ‘27. Some extraordinary allegations ■were marks in a police court case today in the hearing, of a complaint by Letilia Ann Elmsley against hex' husband Peter Elmsley of AVareanga, a farmer. She said in evidence) that accus-i ed had struck her, tlmntcncd her with a guitj and turned her out of the house more than once. Guo night he kept her out all night. It was winter and she spent* the night, in a calf shed wearing only her night dress. Sliq covered herself with sacks. Another night he put her out at : - a.m. She crouched in a corner under a lean-to until daylight. Recently when there was a heavy thundierstonu, accused told her to get out of the house. She tried to gtr back but the doors were locked. She was afraid to disobey him for fear of a thrashing. “If I did not obey him”'she sobbed, “I know I' wculcli get a whip over ray shoulders. While Em she and her daughter were eating bacon and egg and fried potatoes all she'- (witness) ,got was fried bread; which accused threw on tho floor for her. Mrs. Elmslcy declared that her two daughters (18 and 161) had also, ill-treated her, kicking the skin off her shins and legs, and sticking needles into her. Her husband ihadn’t given her money for ten years, and she couldn’t remember when last she was in ai drapery establishment. She was forbidden ,to touch the milk or go to the cupboard. Once wbon she was drinking milk her husband called her a sneak thief. He had beaten her too with knotted ropes. There was a. pathetic scene in court when friends came forward to greet Mrs. Elmsley at the lunch n|djonrjnmeint, witness breaking (down in tbe arms of a. police matron. Witness said she thanked Cod her parents wore alive. They lived at Takapuna.