CASE OF GROSS CRUELTY.

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18164, 31 October 1930, Page 10

CASE OF GROSS CRUELTY.

FOSTER-FATHER SENT TO GAOL. With bruised body and wrists cut and marked by a cord that had tightly bound them, a six-year-old boy, Albert Vernum George Brown, was found in such an ill-used condition that the N.S.P.C.C. prosecuted his mother and foster-father at Croydon. A welldressed, smart young couple, they wer e described as Percival George Livingstone, builder’s labourer, and his wife, May Elizabeth Livingstone, of. Hassop Road, Streatham Vale. Mr Keith Jackson, for the N.S.P.C.C.. s f ited that the hov was the illegitimate son of the woman, who had since married Li v "stone, but he was not the father. “It may be because of these unhappy circumstances that this ill-treament has resulted,” commented the solicitor. 'When Livingstone w-as asked to account for bruises on the boy’s body, he admitted that they were the result of a thrashing with a stick ttie week before, because of his habitual dirty habits. Mrs Livingstone explained that she had twice tied the boy’s bands together at 6 p.m. when he went to bed because he used to damage the wallpaper, and she released him some four hours later. A doctor gave evidence that the boy’s injuries were consistent with the statements of defendants. The treatment amounted to cruelty, and would be injurious to the boy’s health. After a short, private deliberation, the chairman, Mr R. M. Chart, announced that the magistrates were uninimous in regarding the case as one of gross cruelty. Livingstone would undergo a month’s hard labour, and, having regard to the condition of his wife, she would be put on probation for six months. The boy would be placed in a home arranged for him. Mrs Livingstone became hysterical and clung to her hTisband as he was being taken away. She -afterwards created a scene by her screams and struggling.