Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1889-08-17 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

BREAKING A WIFE'S RIBS.  Henry Page, 28, stoker, was indicted at the London County Sessions on Tuesday for maliciously inflicting upon his wife, Julia, grievous bodily harm by fraottrristg several of her ribs.—The prisoner, who pleaded not guilty, treated t'he matter with unconcern, and when the wife was called in to give her evidence she turned to him an imploring look, and said, "Oh ! Henry, I did not lock you up," and begged his lordship not to send him to prison, but to let her go instead. She was allowed to be seated while giving her evidence. The parties lodged at Bromley, and one night, after Mrs. Stevens, the landlady, had gone to bed, she heard a disturbance in prisoner's room. She was going upstairs to see what was the matter when the prisoner called her in to see his wife. On entering the room prosecutrix was lying on the floor partially dressed and so badly injured that for an hour they could not lift her on to the bed. At length they procured a cart, and she was conveyed to the Poplar Hospital. A policeman came up whilst she was being removed, and asked the prisoner what he had been doing. He replied, "It is only an accident." The proseoutrix said, "No, no; he has been kicking me." At the Poplar Hospital she was attended by a doctor, who told the officer to take the prisoner into custody, and afterwards L sent the poor woman on to the ondon Hospital, where she was attended to by Dr. Reynolds, housesurgeon, who found she had three ribs broken, a tumour, a wound on the collar-bone, another on the shoulder-blade, and other injuries. The injuries could not have been inflicted by blows with the fist. The prisoner on being taken into custody said he did not kick his wife, but only punched her. In her evidence, which was given with very great reluctance, the prosecutrix said she did not know how she was injured—most likely she fell against the bedstead. She did all she could to shield the prisoner, and was so overcome with emotion that she had to be led out of the court to the waitingroom.--The jury immediately found the prisoner guilty.—Mr. Besley said there was this mitigating circumstance in the prisoner's favour, that as soon as he found out the injury he had done he went to the landlady for help, and assisted to take his wifeto the hospital. Without such mitigating circumstances, he (Mr. Besley) could hardly conceive a worse case.— The landlady, in answer to the Court, said the parties had lodged with her for three months, and always appeared to be very fond of each other.—The learned Chairman said one of the painful consequences of oases of this kind was that the wife suffered by imprisonment inflicted on her assailant. The prisoner had been guilty of a very gross assault, for which he would have to undergo 12 months' imprisonment with hard labour.  On Monday morning Agnes McMuntree, or Walker wife of James Walker, photographer, living near Ayr, committed suicide by throwing herself,before the halfpast 5 train from Ayr to Glasgow. The engine-driver saw her throw herself upon the metals, but was unable to pull up in time to save her life. The deceased had been living apart from herhusband. A serious boiler txplosion has occurred at Billups's brickyard, Cardiff. The boiler, which weighed about 15 tons,was blown to a height of 50ft, and fell nearly 30 yards from its original position, where it lay em• bedded in the ground. The shed which enclosed the boiler was blown to atoms. A search among the debris disclosed the fact that a lad of:12 and a7youth of 18 Were killed, and that three men had been badly in. jured.