THE OTAKI MANSLAUGHTER CASE.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10820, 10 December 1902, Page 5

THE OTAKI MANSLAUGHTER CASE.

.»• • • t The Judge's Speech.

(Per United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, December 9. Harriet Drake, who .had' been found guilty on the . charge of manslaughter ot her seven-year-old daughter, D6rothy, came up for sentence before Mr Justice Edwards, in the' Supreme Court this morning. The Court' was crowded with spectators, the gallery being filled with women. .> The prisoner appeared in the dock clad in deep mourning. ' Counsel for defence having called witnesses who gave evidence as to the prisoner's character, and having addressed, the Court in mitigation of the' penalty, his ■ Honor sentence.

•'Prisoner at the bar/ he v said, "your counsel has said., I have no doubt quite truly,' that you had no intention to kill this child, and that you had no intention, of doing it any serious injury. If you had such an intention of course the crime .vith which yon are charged would not have been manslaughter. It would have been, murder. Nevertheless it is perfectly plain that most inhuman conduct was shown by you towards this unhappy child. The evidence of 'the doctor is that the body of this little^ child, 7 years of age, was so covered with bruises that it was scarcely possible to put sixpence between tnem without touching one or other of the bruises. The death . of the child was not 'the result of one blow given in haste and under sonitv provocation. •No smgle one of the blows inflicted' upon that child was sufficient, to cause death, which was the result of repeated blows inflicted by you, the child's mother, over a period of some houre. To get tho whole atory of what really did happen on that fatal afternoon is plainly impossible, but the evidence of the doctors and of the child's body js unfortunately all to conclusive that the con- ' duct shown towards this- child . was such that one would not expect from any woijaan to any child, and that it was extandI ing over a considerable period of time. Your counsel has* referred to your condition in life and the fact that any punish-, ment inflicted upon you must necessarily be greater in its ' effect 'uppn you than on women in a lower station of life. That undoubtedly is true, but it is not a circumstance which I "feel it is within my duty to ' take into consideration in this Court in such „a>case as this. There, must be one law for rich and poor. The ricli may suffer more from their delicate upbringing, but iii such a case as -this ' tic offence is greater than the offence committed by an ignorAnt or untrained person. 11 The prisoner buried her face'in, her hVndkercl-ief and wept, as his Honor continued, "I must deal the case precisely as I would deal with any other caae; whatever the rank of partieß. Tho jury Have recommended you to mercy. I shall take tbatfmatfcer into consideration in the sentence ' I propose to ,pass upon you ; but the sentence must , necessarily be a severe, one. The growing tendency of tho Courts lias been, and justly, to punish severely primes of violence against .women and children, and less severely crimes against property. Those who give way to their passions and allow themselves to use unrestrained violence towards young children must le'arrt that the punishment which will follow will, be a Revere c.ne, and that no considers tione. whatever can step between them ' and. the punishment * which Ought justly to be inflicted npon them. The sentence* of the Court is that you be imprisoned end kept to hard labour in the common prison known as the Terrace Gaol, Wellington, for a period of six years." There was some sensation in the Court ,when the" last words were spoken, and the prisoner, .; who was weeping bitterly,, was hurried down the steps from tie . dork to thr> polls below.