Cruelty to Children.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XVIII, Issue 1682, 30 March 1885, Page 2

Cruelty to Children.

The case against Fleming and his wife, at Dunedin, of cruelty to children, is appaling in its atrocity. The woman was the stepmother of the children, and a horribly cruel stepmother she proved herself to be. This fiendish wretch stripping a little boy naked, stretched him flat down on a bed and lashed him with a cartwhip till his flesh was like raw steak. Then, Fleming, the father, at another time tied the boy naked to the bedpost, and lashed him with his eartwhip. It is hardly possible to conceive how great must have been the agony and torture inflicted upon the unfortunate boy. Every lash of the whip would cut into the naked flesh and, after the first few, draw blood. Moreover, the lashes would be given all over the body, from the back of the neck down to the heels. When a criminal is flogged in gaol, with “ The cato-nine-tails.’' the number of lashes given is small, and the cuts are only across the back and shoulder. The culprits also are usually strong men. This poor boy Fleming got a punishment a hundred-fold more severe. It is to be hoped that these Flemings will meet with the severest punishment. They deserve to be branded upon the face, with a red hot iron, so that they might be known to the world as “ The child torturers.”