Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1876-10-14 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

ALLEGED GROSS NEGLECT AND ABUSE BY A PARENT AT MIDDLESBROUGH.  At the Police Court on Wednesday, before the Stipendiary Magistrate, Bridget O'Neil appeared to answer a charge of cruelly treating a little daughter named Elizabeth, aged 11 years.— Maria Watson, of 65, Cannon-street, stated that at eleven o'clock on Monday night her attention was directed to a crowd of pereons. and she was told a child was dying. She went up, and found the child in an exhausted and insensible condition. Witmess took her indoors, and placed her in warm water. She gave her tea and brandy, but she could not swallow it. She found marks and bruises about the neck. The child remained with her during the night, never speaking until the morning, when she said she had bean struck with a poker. Witness spoke to the police, I and an officer came.—Sergeant Mann said that about nine o'clock on Tuesday mcrning the girl's father came to the Cannon-street police station and asked about his child. They went together to Mrs Wa'son's house and saw it. Witne,s examined the child in the father's presence. It was very badly bruised about the neck, the jaw and arms, and also the lower part of the legs. There was blood on the chemise, near the shoulder part. Witness brought the child to the Police-station, and Dr Clark was I then sent for. The child appeared very ill, and I could scarcely speak. About a fortnight ago, at midnight, when it was raining, he found her sitting I in the cold on the door-step; she told him she was waiting for her father, who was out drank. Witness arrested the prisoner, and, in answer to the charge of cruelly treating and ill-using the child, she said ehe had beaten her on Sunday morning with a strap. produced before the court. When be found the child a fortnight ago he bad to knock two or three Cm( s at the door. Then the lodger opened it, and he told witness Mrs O'Neill was out seeking her child, and the father was an bed. When charged by witness, prisoner also pointed to a second strap, saying she sometimes used it, and that when she beat the child on Sunday the father was present.—The girl was questioned by his Worship. She said she attended St. Patrick's School. Her mother beat her with a strap on Sunday, for staying out on Saturday night. On Monday night she struck her on the shoulder with a poker, but the blow did not hurt her. She had stopped out at night because she was afraid to go in the house. Up to Sunday night her mother had net previously beaten her. On the occasion of being found on the door step, she was not told to sit there. She had remained out from 10 in the morning to 10 at night withoot food.—Dr Clarke said he had examined the ohild. There were scratches on the neck, two braises on the jaw, and there was blood in the right ear. The chemise near the shoulder was covered with blood. The straps produced would not cause the injuries he found. He thought the child must have been struck with a stick or something of that sort. The blood in the ear was most likely the result of violence, as there was no disease to account for it. The exhausted state of the child might be cansed by cold and exposure, and being without food for any length of time. The Stipendiary said the child's story was not satisfactory, and the ease looked like one in which she had been touted to give an incorrect account. The child would be detained, away from her parents, until Friday, to which day the case would be remanded for further =pixies to be made.  A Coroner's dury have returned a verdict of wilful murder against a young woman named Williams, who, while living in service at Huddersfield, was suspected of having murdered her infant child and buried it in the garden, where a child's body was afterwards found. She has confessed that she isqueesed its head till it died.