A BISHOP SUED

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2297, 2 July 1921, Page 3

A BISHOP SUED

ALLEGED MALICIOUS ARREST

THE CASE OF SISTER LIGOURI,

Sydney, June 30. The hearing has commenced of the case in which Bridget Mary Partridge (formerly Sister Ligouri) is suing Joseph Wilfred Dwyer, Ro- ( man Catholic Bishop of Wagga, for alleged malicious arrest, whereby her reputation was injured, and she suffered great pain of body and mind. £5,001) demages is claimed.? Defendant’s plea of not guilty disclaims causing plaintiff’s arrest or imprisonment.

Great public interest was displayed, the Court being crowded and a long queue waiting outside hours before it opened. A strong Bar has been engaged by each side. Counsel for plaintiff submitted a letter written by the plaintiff to Bishop Dwyer after she left the convent, in which she stated that her health broke down at the convent, and when she asked for medicine the doctor gave her poison to end her life.

Cross-examined, plaintiff' stated that when she returned to the convent after her first escape, she was given a dose of castor oil, the sister who gave it her saying: “Here's your dose of oil. When you have had this you will not want another dose. You won’t get out of bed for the next six months.” Becoming alarmed after taking the oil, she drank soapy water as an emetic, and while the sister was out of tho room she escaped in her nightdress to a house near by, and came thence to Sydney, where she was arrested. [Sister Ligouri escaped from a convent at Wagga Wagga, and was taken to Sydney, where she took refuge in the. house of a Congregational minister until she was arrested. The information set out that Bridget Partridge, otherwise Sister Ligouri, was n person deemed to he insane and without sufficient means of support. The Court remanded her to a reception house for expert medical observation. The medical experts adjudged her to ly3 sane, and the Court discharged her.]