HALF-WIT BEATEN

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 725, 26 July 1929, Page 1

HALF-WIT BEATEN

ELDERLY WOMAN ADMITS ASSAULT FINE OF £lO IMPOSED Pleading guilty to a charge of assaulting a woman of weak mentality, Bertha Annie Owen, a married woman, of 313 Mount Eden Road, was fined £lO at the Police Court today. r PHE prosecution was made by Mr. ■*- Matthews, who appeared on behalf of the Society for Protection of Women and Children. Mr. Matthews said that Mrs. Owen had assaulted a half-wit woman who worked for her. The woman had been knocked about for four years, and when she was taken over by the society there were marks on her head, face, and neck. Arrangements had now been made for the’woman to be placed in the Salvation Army home. Mrs. Owen and her husband contributing 10s a week toward her maintenance. Mr. King, representing Mrs. Owen, said that his client’s physical condition was such that the presence of the woman was certain to get on her qerves sooner or later. The accumulated strain of the years had overwrought lier, and when the woman had broken eight plates, Mrs. Owen struck her with a stick. The woman was said to be a relative of Mr. Owen’s first wife. Major Annie Gordon, the female probation officer, said that Mrs. Owen, L’or health reasons, was not fit to have control of anyone. After the penalty had been imposed, the magistrate, Mr. F. K. Hunt, refused an application to have defendant’s name suppressed.