KILLING A CHILD

Gisborne Times, Volume VIII, Issue 691, 10 December 1902, Page 2

KILLING A CHILD

MRS DRAKE SENTENCED TO SIX YEARS.

[By Telegraph—Press Association.] Wellington, last night. Mrs Drake, found guilty at the previous criminal sessions of toe manslaughter of her child Dorothy, was to-day sentenced by .lodge Edwards to six years’ imprisonment. Evidence was called as to the character of tilt- woman, ami counsel pkaded tor a light sentence on the ground limt tile dealli uas c lUse.l in an outburst ol passion and nut because of malice. •Bulge Low,uds, in .sentencing Mrs Drake, said she luul shown most inhuman conduct to tier little daughter of seven Her death was the result of repei// 1 blows. Prisoner's conduct had been suc:i that one would not expect from any woman to any child. Prisoner's position in life might make her punishment heavier than it would be to a woman in a lower Station in life, but he could not consider that. There must be one law for the rich and poor. Prisoner wept bitterly while being sentenced.

PASSING SENTE NCI

IMPRESSIVE REMARKS BY HIS HONOR. A BATHETIC SCENE.

(Per Press Association). WELLINGTON, last night. Harriet Brake, who had lieen found guilty on a charge of manslaughter ot her seven-year-old daughter Dorothy, came up for sentence liefore Mr .Justice Edwards m the Supreme Court this morning.

The Court was crowded with spent,v lots, the gallery being hik'd with women.

The prisoner appeared in dock clad 'in deep mourning. Counsel for t lie ''.defence havinp called witnesses, who gave evidence as xo the prisoner's character, and having addressed the Court in mitigation of the penalty, IBs Honor passed sentence on the prisoner at, the bar. lie said —Your counsel has said, I have no doubt quite truly, that you had no intention to kill the child, and that, you had no intention of doing it any serious injury. if you had hud such an intention, of course the crime with which you are charged would not have been manslaughter—it would have been murder. Nevertheless, it is perfectly plain that, most inhuman coilduet was shown by you towards this unhappy child. Tho evidence of the doctor is that the body of the little child seven years of age was so covered with bruises that it was scarcely possible to put sixpence between them without, touching one or other of tlie bruises. The death of the child Was not the effect of one blow given in haste and under some provocation. No single one of the blows indicted on that child was sufficient to cause its death. Jt was the insult of repealed blows indicted by you, the child’s mother, over a period of some hours. To gel, the wllYile story of what really did happen that fatal afternoon is plainly impossible, hut the evidence of tho doctors, and of the child’s body, is unforunatciy all 100 conclusive that the conduct shown towards this child was such that one would not expect from any woman to any child, and that it, was extending over a considerable period of time. Your counsel lias referred lo your condition of life, and tiic fact that any punishment indicted upon you must necessarily be greater in its effect, upon you than on a woman in a lower station of life. That undoubtedly is Liuo, but it is not a circuinstauco which 1 feel it is my duty to take into consideration in this Court. Io such a case as this thcro must ho ono law for rich ami poor. Tho rich tuny suffer more from their more delicate upbringing, but in such a caso as this tho offonco is greater than an offonce committed by an ignorant or untrained person. Prisoner buried her face in her handkerchief, and wept as His Honor continued : I must deal with this case precisely as I should deal with any other case, vvhatevor tho rank of the parties. Tho jury havo recommended you to moroy. 1 shall take that matter into consideration in tho sentence I proposo to pass upon you, but tho sentence must necossarily bo a soverc ono. The growing tendency of Courts has been, and justly, to punish severely crimes of violence, more especially violence against women und children, and less severely crimes against proporty. Those who give way to thoir passions and allow themselves to uso unrestruinod violence towards young children must learn that the punishment which will follow will bo a severe one, und that no considerations whatever can step betweon thorn and the punishment which ought justly to bo indicted upon them. Tho sontonco of tho Court is that you bo imprisoned and kopt to hard labor in tho common prison known as Torraco Gaol, Woffington, for a period of six years. Thcro was some sensation in Court when tho last words were spoken, and prisoner, who was weeping bitterly, was hurried down the steps from tho dock to the cells below.