STARVATION OF A CHILD BY HIS FATHER.

Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 144, 25 June 1870, Page 2

STARVATION OF A CHILD BY HIS FATHER.

Before Mr. Baron Cleasby, Abraham Rock, mason, was charged vt ith the manslaughter of Benjamin Kock, at Barnsley, on the 6th of March.* The prisoner was a stonemason, and the boy in question, his son, was nearly two years of age: and the prisoner was indicted .that he, being a man of sufficient had not provided enough food for the child, from which lack of nourishment the lad had died. The prisoner was a man ' who could obtain plenty of work, but he had unhappily given way to drink. The child in question, five weeks before his death, appeared to be very healthy, but he subsequently sickened, for want of food and medical attendance, and ultimately died. On th. 28th of November the prisoner's daughter, a girl of thirteen, applied to him for some money to buy food. He gave her 1 s Bd., and from that time up to the 6th of March, when the child died, the prisoner gave her no more money. Prisoner had cottages that brought him in ss. 6d. per week, and he could also have made good wages at his trade. According to the evidence of I one of the neighbour women, when the children had no food for two days he threatened he would whip them if they did not lie still in bed. A number of witnesses' having been called in support of the prosecution, Mr. Campbell Foster, for the defence, contended that it was the duty of the relieving officer' to have administered relief in the first place, and then to have taken steps against the father to recover the expense. The jury found the prisoner guilty, and he was sentenced to five years' penal servitude.