THE ALLEGED WIFE MURDER AT OAMARU.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 205, 29 August 1881, Page 4

THE ALLEGED WIFE MURDER AT OAMARU.

DYING DEPOSITIONS OF THE WIFE. It will be remembered that "the Oamaru telegrams recently stated that a Swede named Charles Augustus had been arrested for ill-treating his, wife, and that the' unfortunate woman 'afterwards died. The story told by the unhappy creature in her dying depositions is probably one of the most revolting and horrifying narratives to be found in the annals of crime. She said: — I am the wife of Charles Augustus, the accused. On the 3rd of this month, at Oamaru, I gave birth to a child. I confined to my bed for four days. On the fifth day, between 8 and 9 o'clock, I was washing my feet in my bedroom. ' My son Charles, aged 10 years, was also in the room, and: my husband came in and told the boy to go to his bed, and that ha would sort my feet himself. [The next portion of the evidence as to what took place is unfit for publication, In consequence of the husband's treatment to her she was confined to her bed until the following Sunday ] Witness continued: On that day I struggled to get the breakfast. My husband was then present, and I called him to breakfast. After be bad got his breakfast I a3ked him would he allow me to get one visit from the doctor. He said " No," I was sitting on a low stool | by the fire, and be threw me to the floor, He then gave me a kick and shoved me before him. When I saw his back turned I opened the back door and ran out. He i ran after me and pulled me back, and with his fists knocked my teeth loose. He then took me up by the petticoats and threw me on the bed, and said " Will you ask a doctor iv now? " I said, " Leave me alone." He eaid if he knew it would keep him from his work he would not let a doctor come in nor anyone else, and that if he found it oot he would take a tomahawk and chop my brains into mincemeat, for he wanted to mate away with me. That was all that day. When Monday came he went away to his work, and I did not see bim till after 5 o'clock in the evening, and nothing occurred until next morning, when, before going to his work, a3 I was in my bed, he dragged me out and put his nails into me, an-i said, " That is another finishing blow." He then went away, leaving me on the floor. That night pretty late he said to me, "Well, did you get a doctor to-day ? I did not say aye or no, and through the night, in the dark, he came two or three times, and gave me a blow, saying he wai glad he was getting rid of me. I came to the hospital ou Tuesday at nooa. I made a mistake ; it was on Monday ha asked me if I had had a doctor. On the Sunday he tied my hair to the heel of the boj's boot, turned it round, and pulled it out. Since my baby was born he kept the door open and gave me no light. He would give me nothing warm, and he would not rise out of his bed. I asked bim to do tbese things and he always refused. Ue wouid-not Tet the boy do little things for me. Since my. confinement I have had half a pint of sherry wine, some porter one day, and some whisky, bot very little. Mrs Carter (tbe nurse) gave me the wine, and the whisky ; the porter I took myself. My husband gave me some money to get some bread and meat. I did not spend tiny "money upon the wine, or whisky, or porter.