PATHETIC STORY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7543, 28 October 1902, Page 2

PATHETIC STORY.

A MOTHER AND HER CHUT).

A pathetic story was told l at Bow Street in a case in which Lucy Blytot, a widow, of Hilleott Street, Haggerston', Iras charged with attempting to murder he/ son Frederick, aged seven, by inciting him to throAV himself into the Thames, and with attempting herself to commit suicide. [ The little boy was called, and said he i went to school at Haggerston. He left there with his mother, and came by train to Charing Cross. His mother asked a lady where the water was, because she wanted to drown (herself. The lady said, " Don't be stupid." He (the boy) said, " I don't want to go into the water, mother," and his mother told him to " Shut up." His mother took him a little further down the street, and then went back to " the lady " (who was by this time sitting on the pavement), and again asked her the way to the water. The lady replied, "I ain't a-goin' to tell." Then a policeman came and said, "You come along," and both went with him, and he saw his mother taken into a laTge room and put into "an iron thing." Mr Fenwick : That was the dock, I suppose? Assistant-Gaoler Soper said that on Wednesday the prisoner was charged afc that Courfc with being drunk, and discharged with a caution. Her little hoy was in the meantime taken to the workhouse. The boy said that was correct. He was kept in a big place where lots of people lived, and his mother went there and took him out. When they got into the street she said to him, "We musfc go into the water." Mr Fenwick: What did you say? The Boy: Please, sir, I said, "I don't ! want to go." Mother said, " You must," and took me down to the river. She lifted me up so that I could look over the wall and seo the river. I don't know where it was, 'but there was a big arch, with 'buses running all over the top of. it. When she showed me the water she said, " You must go in there." I said, " No, mother, I don't want to." She then took me down some steps and stood' looking at the water for a long time without saying anything. Then we went aAvay, but soon wenfc back, and I cried out. Mr Fenwick : Why? The Boy : Because I did not want to go into the water. No, my mother did nofc do any tiling to me. Sho only said, "Go into the water." Then a gentleman came along, ami 1 we were taken to a house on the water. It wag explained that tho boy meant Waterloo Pier Police Station. Mr Fenwick: Did your mother go into any eel shops yesterday? Did she. have anything to drink? Tlie Boy : Yes, in a pub. Mr Fenwick: Did she try to push you into ihe water? Whines: No, she only told me to go in. Mr Fenwick : And of course you were not foolish enough to do so? Witness : No, sir. Tlie prisoner, who made no reply to tho charge,, was remanded.