The Sun. — 1857-06-09 (London, England)

WORSHIP-STREET. James Shadracb, a middle. aged man, was charged before Mr. D'Eyncourt with the following brutality : The prisoner's wife, a clean but wretched-looking woman, with an infant three months old in her arms, said,—This man is my husband, and a carpenter by trade. On Saturday night, as he did not come (home, I went out to look for him, but could not find him, and after I had returned home a short time, between nine and ten o'clock, he came in drunk. I said it was a shame, or very wrong of him, not to come home earlier, to which he made no reply whatever, but coolly got up, locked the door, struck me a .violent blow upon th© eye with h's fist, then another on the mouth, cutting my lip, then knocked me down, and struck me on the head after I had fallen ; I have the bruises upon my he td now. I called out for help, and he threatened me if I did not be quiet, saying he would be hung for me, and also said I was drunk, but I was not. By Mr. D'Eyncourt.—l bad my infant in my arms all the time he did this. We have been married nine years, and I have had three children by him. He earns from 30s. to 2/. a-week, but he only gives me sometimes ss. and sometimes 75. a-week, and spends all the rest on himself. He knocked three of my, teeth out on Saturday night —one of them through my upper lip, and he also jumped upon me while I was in the familyway. (The woman here exhibited her upper lip, which was much swollen, very sore, and seemingly cut thrOugh, and there was blood on the clothes of the infant she held in her arms.) elderly woman named Mary Anne Ford, said. —I don't know anything of this woman or her husband, except from being a neighbour, but I do know_ that she is a very good woman, and nearly starves herself to feed the family, which and,her place she keeps very clean. I have often heard him beat her before this, and now I did not see it, but 1 heard her scream for help that it would have softened a stone. She said, " Oh, don't kill my baby ! Oh, do somebody come and take my poor baby 1" Her screams and cries of " Murder" were dreadful; King, 22 H.—l was fetched to the house, and found the prisoner drunk. The wife was perfectly sober, but bleeding a great deal from the mouth, and one of her teeth had been forced through her upper lip. Mr. D'Eyncourt (to the prisoner)—Aud what have you to say to all this Prisoner—Well, I told her not to aggravate me so, as I was in liquor •, but she would do it. Mr. D'Eyncourt—Every one who has heard the evidence against you must feel thoroughly shocked at the brutality of which you have been guilty. The-Legislature is endeavouring by every possible means to put a check upon these cruel acts of violence, and the whole country is indignant at the constant repetition of such outrages, and well it may be, for they do not cease. I shall mark my sense of your conduct by sentencing you -to six months' imprisonment in the House of Correction, with hard labour, and at the expiration of that you must find bail for your good behaviour for three months longer. The wife asked what she was to do ; the prisoner had brought her home no money at all on Saturday night, and she had nothing to support her and the children. Mr. D'Eyncourt directed ss. to be given her, and ordered inquiries to be made as to what could bo done for her.