The Express.
London, England, 1865-12-06 00:00:00

LAW INTEL LIGIINCE

COURT OF irOICIIEQUIR.—Duo. 5.
ISMOOND COURT.
Sittings at Nisi Prius.—(Before Mr. Baron Bramwell and
a Common Jury.)
BROM' r. lICHARIXIOX.—ILMA.OIIDIEARY CARL
This was an action for libel under very extraordinary
air-
cumstances. The defendant pleaded " Not guilty," and a
justitkatiom
Mr. Francis and Mr. Reynolds were counsel for the
plaintiff ; Mr. Sagami Perry and Mr. Joyce represented
the defendant.
It appeared from the opening
statement of mussel that
the plaintiff was a working plumber, who had formerly
been in they of the London, Brightoe, carriedth
Coast Railway Company, and that the defendant on
the business of a mutter el Croydon. and was also the
proprietor of two local prints called The Croydon 7177141.
and The Sydenhasot I imes. The plaintiff and his wife were
married about five years ago, the latter having then a
child five years old by a former husband. On the 3rd of
October last an article appeared in both the defendant's
papers of which the plaintiff's step-child wee the subject,
arid which contained the libel complained of. The following
is the alleged libel :—" Shocking Case of Cruelty toe Child.
—One of the most heartless and revolting cases of cruelty
that perhaps ever disgraced our local civilisation was
brought to light at the polioe-ciourt on Monday. Many of
the facts then detailed were of old standing, but many too
were recent and of a more sickening character. The can-
plaint was lodged by disinterested parties whom feelings
bad long been outraged by the inhuman—we might
well say—fiendish act to be described. but as things sp.
to get none they were rooked to bring the cam
Crred the sitting magistrate. The bets, as Mated to J. M.
Uatty,Esq., on Mee,were these:— There lives, it appears,
in Park-street. a man named Alfred Brown, a plumber, in
the employ of the Loodoa, Brighton, and South Cast
Railway Company. This man has a wife and a child, and
also a stepeon, for the woman is said to have had • farmer
husband; and it is splint this poor little step-sou, wd
about ten years, but not apparently more than hail that
age, through starvation and ill-treatment, that the ven-
geance of the loving couple has for years been directed. It
world MOM that they want to get quit of the boy, and
the woman has repeatedly applied to the magistrates to
have him sent to a reformatory school, but the magistrates
on those occasions told her they had, no power, unless the
boy were to commit a theft ; and this desideratum was not
forthcoming. Failing the law, the parents would seem to
have resolved upon a course of ill-treatment as severe as
possible, short of actual murder, and the appearance of the
boy shows how well that resolve has bleu carried out. Cold
and hunger combined with hard work, such as scrubbing
floors, and other kitchen duties, followed by kiekiugs and
beatiogs on the naked body, must have a telling effect on •
child of tender years, and this would appear to have bean
the treatment and the lot of little Joseph, and
it has of course kept him little and pale, and
filled the short span of his earthly exiatence
with experience of the bitterest kind. It would further
appear that to Berme their evil doings the worthy parents
used to threaten Joseph that they would do this, that, and
the other thing to him, if he told any one of the treatment
he had received. If, for instance, he received a black eye
—and he had one recently—from being driven against the
bed-poet by hie noble peps, he was to tell any meddling
inquirer that he fell out of bed. Another statement made
was to this effect, that when the parents went out on Sun-
days they need to look Joseh in the house till their
return, taking with them, however, their own well-kept
child, plump and healthy. On Sunday last the mum thing
was repeated, and the neighbours, pitying the poor boy,
got him out, and took him to the pohotestation, to show
him to Mr. Frame. On being stripped he was found to be
in one mess of bruises from head to feet, and his wrists,
by which be has bean seized sod dragged about, bore a
peculiar appearance, being surrounded as it were by large
blue rings, the result of bruises. Mr. Frame told the
parties to lay the can before the sitting magistrate next
morning, and this was thoroughly done, and the above Mate-
ments,with circumstantial deedla of a heartrending maitre,
were made. Mr. Eastty ordered a constable to go for little
Joseph, but of course he was not to be found, and the
mother made her appearance. She excused her cruel, me
motherly conduct by saying that the boy was in the habit
of stealing food from her lodgers, which the magis-
trate said it was very natural for him to do
when he was starved. As one instance, it appears
that he took some raw potatoes that were in the house,
roasted them, and ate them to appease the gnawing@ of
hunger, and for that he was unmercifully beaten ; other-
wine--and we don't call that stealing—Joseph gets the
name of being an honest little fellow. After shaming the
woman for her barbarous conduct, the magistrate told her
that the next time such a complaint was made a warrant
would be issued for her husband's appearance, and he
trusted the neighbours would give information as soon as
the slightest repetition of the above cruelties should come
under their notice. We cannot help thinking it a pity that
the peat barb-rities practised by Mr. and Mrs. Brown are
to go unpunished ; but we trust that the publicity now
given to the case will have a beneficial effect. If no higher
motive has any effect upon • woman who has forgotten
the natural love of a mother, and who daily insults the
memory of a former husband, re upon a man to form who
seems oblivious to the solemn duties he undertook to ob-
serve at the hymeneal altar, perhaps the finger of public
scorn, pointed by all having a spark of humanity in their
breasts, may have a deterring influence. We hope it may."
After the publication of the article, the popular iodigna.
lion against the plaintiff was such that he was compelled
to leave the neighbourhood, and give up his situation. The
defendant finding that his reporter had not been present
at the police court when the proceedings took place, in-
serted a full apology in his papers, denying the truth of
the charges, and offered to make the plaintiff a present of
31., in compensation of the injury be had sustained.
Mr. Charles Luabing, a medial man, had examined the
child eight days after the publication of the libel, and
found no traces of ill-nsage upon his body.
Mr. Brows, the plaintiff, deposed that his step-son was a
very bad boy, being in the habit of stayleg out all night in
bad company, and frequenting public-homes, although be
*satiety ten years of age, and looked much less. Although
he generally treated him in the kindest possible manner, he
was compelled occadocally to be severe with him, in order
to put a stop to his bad practices. The witnees denied the
whole of the imputations of cruelty contained in the article.
Mr. Serjsant Parry addressed the jury for the defence,
and celled a considerable number of witnesses to make out
the plea of justification.
About ten witnesses, chiefly lodgers in the plain-
tiffs' house arid neighbours, gave corroborative evidence,
sad spoke to specific acts of cruelty.
The learned Baron, t
itan umming up, said the case wits
one of great impoe, net only to the parties,
but to the public, because if the statements in
the article complained of were true the author of
them ought not to be made liable. The first question was
whether the publication in question was a libel, and that
they must determine with reference to the law, which said
that any written or printed publication which exposed a
person to general contempt, aversion, morn, or hatred, was
a libel. He thought the jury could have no doubt that it
was a publication of that character. If that was their
opinion then came the question whether the allegations
cootaioed in it were ttue, and unless the defendant
bad established all those allegations the plaintiff was
entitled to a verdict in his favour. In the event of their
finding a verdict for the plaintiff, the question of damaged
would arise, and that was • matter entirely for their coo-
sideration looking to the whole circumstances of the case.
The jury give a verdict for the plaintiffs—damages, 751.
for the husband ; end t'i/. for the wife.