SAD AND SILENT CHILD.

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18165, 1 November 1930, Page 10

SAD AND SILENT CHILD.

MOTHER SENT TO PRISON. Remarking that It was a very serious case of child neglect, the Woking magistrates sent Mrs Emily Charman, of Sandy Lane, Woking, to prison for two months on a charge of wilfully neglecting Peggy Smith, her three ’years and eight months-old child, while her husband was ordered to pay a fine of £2 for allowing it to be neglected while in his charge. Mrs Charman was the mother of 10 children, and no complaint, according to Mr Hunt, who defended, had ever been made against her before. This child was born three weeks after the death of her first husband, and shortly after birth was in hospital for nine weeks suffering from bronchial pneumonia. Upon recovery it was sent to a home at Plymouth, but wiien the mother remarried it was sent back to her. Owing to complaints received by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children an inspector visited the house and found the child in a filthy emaciated condition, lying nude on a bed with dirty covering.' It was unable to speak or stand, and'had a waxy complexion. It weighed only 18 lb., whereas its weight should have been 36 lb. >

It was alleged by Mr J. F. Hipwood. for the prosecution, that the child had not been out of the house for eight months.

Dr. Margaret Mills stated that, she had never seen a child so absolutely silent. Even when she bent its legs, which were stiff, it did not make" a sound.

Dr. Enoch, of Guildford Infirmary described the child as like a plant in the garden deprived of water. Although it had been in the infirmary for a week, he had been unable to induce it to speak to him yet, though it smiled and played with other children. The child was not dumb, so far as he could ascertain, but did not even make a noise or any attempt to speak. Mrs Charman stated that all her oilier children were healthy, and she had never had a doctor to any of them. This chid had been “up and down” since birth, and she fed it on patent food and cow’s milk. She denied neglecting the child, which had spoken to tiie other children but never to her.