AN EXTRAORDINARY OUTRAGE.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10817, 6 December 1902, Page 8

AN EXTRAORDINARY OUTRAGE.

A Boy R«o«lve« 800 UwhM.

The' ease of Albert Peters • (nineteen ■ years), who has been ar^est^d' bythfc'SttJr. . bournti police a charge of inflicting grievous -bodily^ harm on Cfiarles Alexander Sibbald, aged 'ten years, appears" 'w"be without parallel in these coWnies. The most experienced officers of the metrojtoli-* tan police (says the Age) have rfeyer heard anything like it, and are fairly puwled to account for the instinct that impeßecJ tht perpetrator to commit such' A'sairige offence or what satisfaction he derived from inflicting barbarous and wantott cruelty on a defenceless .child. Charlie Sibbald, the victim of the outrage, will in all probability carry to his. grave the marks of the. unmerciful thrashing he received, ; liia flesh having been bruised and excoriated 'in a shocking maiiner. The story 'he tellers that some weeks, ago he met in Fawkner £ark a young man sitting on a seat, who spoke %o him and' asked him to sit down. This he did; The young man told him that he was a "junior detective" attached to the^pdnrinal Investigation Department, and as such was engaged in many dangerous .enterprises." Hjb told the boy jat few of the hazardous incidents which formed a part -of his everyday life, and promised to tell him ifaore. They met often after that, and the "junior detective" loaded the boy Up with tfitllling tales of horror relating to events' in his marvellous career of daring adventure till the. credulous" boy regarded him as a star-spangled hero, compared tfith Vhom "Old Sleuth" or Sherlock Holmes were as nought. One day, while the two brothers Sibbald were walking through the p«rk on their way to school, the '.'junior de,tefcthe" met them. Sending the .Jtftnjger ;/brot'uer a^«aj r Ue- tdß^Cßarfie jha.t?tovw»« * ; «6i% ! ,ta .Mate^o^vestigate £..<Mg '^ of deep and deWy importance, in vwhich <; hc rteetied the assistance of a boy. Gfcarlie might be his assistant, and he woum get the sum of 4s for Mb work. To be made the subject of such glory was something beyond the boy's wildest eipectattonH, and he was excited at- the prospect ofl|ft'ssistirig a real "junior . detective" to Unravel some deep, dark mystery^ Bonding a shilling from the lady be ll*ed w||h, , and telling, her that. lre .>ou,l4 not be* oat late, he get off -in, a state -of. , exhijajtamji on'what, it .'is very, evident, he boyisßw *• regarded as a thrilling adventure. .-On arriving at the^Mentone railway station, he was met by the'mysterious'f-junior'.de-tective," whose name he did not know.' He was conducted into' a side "street, ortt of that to a ti-tree f scrub. The boy w«8 theh^taken through another dense thicket to a small cottage used by workmen" on an> estate. There was no one in it, but the room they entered was partly 'furnished. The young man saidi "W^t n«.te for me; I S#ll be back soon; , but yon might go. away while I am. gone, so take off;, your plothes, and I'll know you can't. eel away!*" <l No,"sir, til not go away,< replied' the boyj "I'll stay till you -come back; there's jio need for me to take my clothes off." The young ;man, however, insisted that he should undress, and, Voicing him to do- so, went away. He returned shortly afterwards with about- a dozen sticks— straight, fibrous ti-tree switches, 3ft to 4fy. long, with' the rough ends of broken twigs adhering to them. Turning sharply to the boy, he. said: "You have told me, lies. What do, you mean?" "No, I have told you no_hes, sir," replied the trembling .boy. 'What rfre they? What have Isaia that is, untrue?" "You have," insisted the felldw, "and I am going to piuhish you. Stoop down till you touch yo^ir toes with your fingers." Pleadingly the little fellow begged that he shouldn't be -Jbeaten, but-, his oppressor was remorseless;. and forced h»m into position. To use the. tyy's own words, "He then began to beat me, and made me count 1 the. strokes-^one— to^thresrW, to 300. I cried, and asked him id "step, Wit he would not, and . no ' onfe hea+d^my screams. I could not get away V* the ttwr was shut, and" Jie" held me. , After r he MW given me 300 strokes t»e wen^away/ttflKting me in, and returned witbra'glasi'fun of whisky. 'He -told me to dnnk-Jt.^l was afraid that he would beat jne again, and I drank it. He then wen^.away. I orW very piddy and sick, and vomited, a lot. I don't recollect, any mo*e^ |or^J must have fallen asleep on the c%och. the morning the young man came back and was very angry because I hfld .been sick. ! He got a shovelful of _sand j»nd spread it on the floor, and then, thrashed me again. He made me write and sign a' paper saying that he had given ine^SK) strokes/ and that I " deaerved-the ing."' When the police visited ."Mcntone a couple' of days later they found thcire-. plenty of evidence to Uphold the tl^th of the boy's story. The ti-tree sticks ijere scattered about. The sand was strewn about on the floor as the boy. described; and some papers which further corrob^ratled the particulars of the' boy's story.. The first paper found was the -one- which the boy was forced to write himself. It was written in pencil in a round schoolboy hand, and set forth that- he had re-, ceived 20 strokes on ' the hands, 'ICU pn each ; 200 on the breech, partially strip- ' ped; and 100 on the bare skin." To this extraordinary* schedule of barbarity was appended the- following: — "I deserve this punishment .—(Signed) Charles Sibbald.'" "I didn't deserve it, sir," cried th^e-' little fellow when the detective "Vead' oni^tbe" note; "I didn't do anything to him,- and I didn't 101 l any lies.