The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-03-28 00:00:00

A LADY COMMITTED FOR TRIAL FOR
CRUELTY.

At the Bristol Police-court on Wednesday, Mrs. Sophia
Batten, of Harley-villa, Redhuid-road, was charged, on
remand, with assaulting and beating Caroline Iluddleston,
Mr. Norris, of the Western Circuit, appeared on behalf of
the Clifton Board of Guardians to prosecute; Mr. F. C.
Lome appeared for defendant. The complainant, aged If,
said she had been at • boarding school at Eastdown-Dark.
Bast Kent, and the defendant paid the school fees. For
four years she had since been living with defendant and
had been doing the household work because the servants
would not stay with her. The defendant told her when
first she went to live with her that she was her
neice, and desired her to call her '"Madame." She had
kept her without food for punishment, and had it not
been for the servants supplying her with a part of their
food she did not know how she should have lived. Oa one
occasion she was locked up all night in the passage, and
had to sleep on the stain. The defendant had pulled her
hair, boxed her ears, and struck her under the chin with
her clenched fist. On Saturday, the 4th of March, she
struck her and made her nom bleed. Mr. Ormsby
Leonard, surgeon to the Bndewell, said that complainant
was 4ft 7in. ,high, and weighed only IBIb. That was a
small weight and short stature for a girl over 1p years of
Age, Complainant was very thin and badly nourished, and
' had very little clothes on at the time he saw her. Her
general appearance led him to believe that her growth was
stunted, and from the evidence given be imaged that
treatment of the sort described would be sufficent to
account for it. Three domestic servants, one of whom had
lived with Mrs. Batten fora month, and tile others for a
week only, stated that complainant used to say that she
was half starved, and that they had given her food
unknown to their inistre•• Mr. Warry, of Chisbury.villa,
residing next door to the defendant, and to whom the girl
I went for protection, described the ravenous meaner in
which she had eaten a dry crust of bread, such as no
beggar would touch, which had been given her by his
servant. When she came to his house she had only one
garment on beside her frock. The magistrates committed
the defendant for trial at the next Quarter Sessions, but
admitted her to bail in her own recognizance of IMO, and
two sureties ot £9OO each. The defendant is highly con-
nected, and the case excited mu& interest.

HEAVY SENTENCE ON A SCHOOLMASTER.
On Friday, at the Devonshire amines, held at Exeter, •
schoolonster, for his treatment of • pupil, received • very
heavy sentence. His name was Starbridge. He pleaded
guilty to assaulting, at Egg Buckland, a pupil named
Qroorse. It appeared that the boy, 11 years of age, was
behind with his sums, and when called out to receive
punishment he refused to hold up his hand, upon which
the prisoner struck hi.a acmes the head several times
with • green willow, which broke in two, and the result
of the blows was that the boy lost the sight of one of his
eyes. The pupil teacher who was called said the boy was
rather clever at his lessons, and was not more troublesome
than others. Usually when boys refused to hold out
their hands, the prisoner struck them adzross the beck and
not upon the bead. The prisoner now said he was unwell
on the day in question, and not fit for his duties; but
although he asked for leave, the clergyman refused to give
it him. If it bad not been for this, he should not have
been in the present scrape; besides this, the boy was rude
to his wife one day.—The Judge warned the defendant
against making this defence.—The prisoner, continuing,
said be did not intend to hurt the boy's eye—His Lord-
ship, in pealing sentence, said the case gave him • great
dad of pun. The prisoner occupied a petition of the
highest trust and greatest importance that any man could
hold in any civilised community—a position demanding
the exercise of the greatest discretion; but here, with but
little, if any. Provocation, prisoner attacked the boy with
savage ferocity and had maimed him for life. He could
Sod no circumstances of palliation in the case, which was
one of the worst possible examples; and it was therefore
necessary to pass a heavy sentence. The Lord Chief Baron
had gone through the case with him to see if they could
find any circumstances to reduce the puniehmentluraag
after fully considering the matter, the learned
agreed with him that simple imprisonment would not
meet the own, but it was necessary that an example
should be made. The primmer would therefore be sen-
tenced to five years' penal servitude.—The sentence
seemed to excite surprise in court, It transpired that
when the prisoner found in December last what mischief
he had done he ran away, and was if terwards apprehended
In Bolton.