INHUMAN HUSBAND.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 0234, 17 April 1926, Page 3

INHUMAN HUSBAND.

WIFE FLOGGED BLACK AND BLUE.

Dunedin, April 12,

A man named Robert Thom, of Green Island, appeared before Mr. J. G. L. Hewitt, S.M., to-day, charged with assaulting his wife and with trespassing on her premises during the currency of a maintenance order. Accused said he had been invited to the house, but the wife’s account was that he had been living at the house very much against her will. Last Christmas, she alleged, he had broken her shoulder and later lie flogged her with a whip until she was black and blue: On another occasion he had picked up a live dog and hammered her with it. Constable Hamilton gave evidence that when the defendant was drunk he was not responsible for his actions. The constable substantiated the account of Thom’s brutal behaviour. “I saw the marks on the woman’s back after the man had flogged her,” said the constable, in answer to Senior-Sergeant Quarterrnain, who prosecuted. After breaking a jug over the woman’s shoulder and breaking her shoulder-bones, the constable added, Thom jabbed the broken handle into her body. The woman would make no complaint. She was evidently afraid of the man. Asked what he had to say, accused stammered something about being able to get on fairly well with his wife, except when he had drink. “It is a very bad record,” said the magistrate/ “What is fairly well for you is not very nice for anyone else.” “I will have to teach you a lesson,” continued the magistrate, after consideration. “I am not going lo make it heavy, but you will have to learn that you cannot do filings like this.”

He sentenced Thom to fourteen days’ imprisonment on each charge, the sentences to be concuri’ent.