BURNT WITH CIGARETTE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 56, 29 November 1937, Page 8

BURNT WITH CIGARETTE

Husband's Cruelty to Wife SEPARAT10N ORDER GRANTED ' A wife told Coventry (England) Magistrates that her husband had made a habit of stripping her, tying her to a bed and burning her with a cigarette — after a good thrashing. By a stroke of irony, the Magistrates' deeision to separate the couple was announced to th® accompaniment of a wedding peal on the bells of nearby ' Coventry Cathedral. The wife,- Sarah Ellen Oakley, now of Foster road, said that she became so terrified of her husband, John George Oakley, of Ransom road, that she left home and how asked for a separation order, with maintenance for herself and three children. After describing other acts of alleged Cruelty, she said: uMy husband told me that if it was not for the law, he would have screwed the head off my body long ago." Two women gave evidence as ta mark they .had seen on. Mrs. Oakley'. body. One of them, Nellie Wilkinson, said: "I was not allowed in the house. He would not let her have any "friends." Oakley said that marks on his wife's body, .about which the two women hg,d given evidence, were caused by accidents. He put the blame for their troubles on his mother-in-law. ^ "She1 has been jealous of me ever since we were married," he declared, adding that they had a lovely home and that he wanted his/ wife and children back. The Bench, however, granted Mrs. Oakley 's application, with 15s a week . maintenance for herself and 5s for cach child.