Horrible Cruelty to a Mother

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 147, 22 May 1886, Page 3

Horrible Cruelty to a Mother

: rMelbofene, May 12. A heartless scoundrel named Patrick if inogue, a farmer, has been convicted .at G-eelOng assizes, of inhuman treat-' inent of his 1 mother. She had been sriarried twice, the second time to a man named Kelly, and both her husbands' w«re killed by accidents. The woman afterwards, in a fit of despondency, attempted to cut her throat, and was placed in Ararat Hospital. She was subsequently examined by doctors and pronounced *ane. She went to live with her son, )tfinogue. She had two deposit receipts lor £280, which her son's wife took from her and gave to her husband. Subsequently Mrs Kelly was treated with great cruelty. She was kept fastened up in a room which contained as furniture only a bed and clotheshorse. She frequently complained she was starved, aud sometimes picked : i seeds out of the mattrass to satisfy her '. hunger. She was allowed out occa- ' *ionally, at intervals of from three to ' nine days. She was frequently gagged and forced into a straight jacket, thrown down, and otherwise ill-used. On one occasion she was thrown on the bed by prisoner and his wife, which, caused an injury to her back, and a flow of blood from her mouth. The prisoner's wife gave her water to drink which, was used in blueing clothes, and she was obliged to drink other filthy fluids. A servant girl who lived with prisoner said the prisoner placed a straight jacket on Mrs Kelly ««veral times during witness' stay, and Mrs Miuogue was in the habit of gagging her. The prisoner himself gagged her twice, and left her lying on the floor. The jury, after a short retirement, found prisoner " Guilty," and Judge Holroyd, in summing up, commented severely on the prisoner's inhumanity. He passed a sentence upon him of six years with hard labor.