MAGISTRATES' COURT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 135, 7 June 1880, Page 2

MAGISTRATES' COURT.

[Before H. E. Curtis and R,. Reeves. Esqs., J.J.P.] Antonio Wett was charged with unlawfully stabbing and wounding his wife, Filistia Wett. Mr Bunny appeared for the accused. The following evidence was adduced by the Superintendent of Police. Filistia Wett : My husband came home to his diuner on Thursday afternoon. I told him the dinner was on the fire, and he took it. I could see he had had a drop of driuk. He told me I was drunk, and I replied that ho was a storyteller. Angry word 3 took place, and after that I don't know what occurred until I got round a bit. He struck me on the face, and 1 8aid, " What the d 1 are you about ? " I wont to the : sideboard for something, and while there I felt a blow on the back which gave me great pain, blood flowed, and I became faint, and fell on the sofa. I had on my workiug dress and the stays and flannel produced. (These were much stained with blood.) The knife produced (a butcher's knife) was on the table, and was generally used for cutting up meat or fish. I have been attended by Dr. Collins. Cross examined: I was perfectly sober at the time and have been ever since. I had a little drop of brandy once. I have not sent out for beer Bince. I don't know whether any one else did. I have paid for sixpennyworth since. It was after I had had lunch my husband returned. I told him he was a liar when he said I was drunk. I did not accuse him of anything else. All I know is that I received a blow on the face. There was nobody ake in the room. There was a little boy stauding at the door. Dr Collins: I was sent for to attend Mrs Wett on Thursday afternoon. I found her lying on the bed quite intoxicateJ. With the constable's assistance I got her things off and he supported her while I examined her. I found a sharp cut wound about an inch from the spine between the ninth and tenth ribs. There had been profuse bleeding from it but it had stopped before I got there, probably by a large clot of blood which had filled the wound, I removed the clot and sewed up the wound, which penetrated between the ribs but not beyond them. It was a little over an inch long and such a one as might have been inflicted by the knife produced. The wound is not dangerous, but I could not have said that three days ago. She is still under my care. Cross-examined : I visited her twice on Thursday and once every day since. On the Friday morning when I called she was intoxicated, and, even had the wound permitted it, she could not have attended Court that day on that account. By the Bench : The wound could not have healed better if she had been a sober woman, though, as a rule, such injuries are far more dangerous in people of intemperate habit*. Andrew James Wett, eight years old • I was at home on Thursday when father came home. He said some bad words to mother and struck her with his hand. There was no one else in the house. He struck her twice. I saw him pick up the knife (produced) from the table, and then I went away to the wharf. When I went home again I found mother standing up, and her clothes were bloody. She told me to go for a constable. I did so. Cross-examined : I have often seen rows between father and mother, and I did not think anything about it when I left. I Raw father pick up the knife. He had been using it at dinner. Mother had her frock off when I got home from the wharf. She asked me to help her hang out the clothes to dry. I did this, and it was afterwards that she asked me to go for the constable. Constable O'Brien : From information I received I went to Wett's house. Mrs Wett and her little boy were there. She was partly undressed, and I saw that her chemise was stained with blood, and a knife cut through it. Her jacket, Btays, and flanne were also blood-stained. The clothes produced are in the same state as when I found them. I attended to the wound, and then went and arrested Wett on a charge of stabbing his wife. On our way to town he said, " I don't know whether I shall admit or deny thiß charge." There J8 a cut right

through all the clothes and penetrating the whalebone of the stays; Cross-examined : As we were coming up to town prisoner said he had no one to blame but himself. This closed the case for the prosecution, and the prisoner having been warned in the usual manner stated that he reserved his defence, and was committed to take his trial at the next sitting of the Supreme Court. Mr Bunny asked for bail, and stated that the charge had now been reduced from one of felony to a misdemeanor. Bail was allowed, the accused in £100, and two sureties of £50 each.