A STEPMOTHER’S CRUELTY.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 1041, 30 May 1883, Page 2

A STEPMOTHER’S CRUELTY.

Here is a brief extract from the dismal chronicle of human cruelty which day by day is unfolded in the hearing of London magistrates, but to which the multitudinous metropolis pays but little heed :— 44 Clara Theresa Harponr, aged eleven; lived in Tottenham, was ill-treated by her stepmother, as follows : She clothed her in rags, fed her on bread and water for weeks at a time, and once left her without any food whatever. The girl was dreadfully emaciated, weighing oply:36lbs. Her body was covered with braises and' sores, both her eyes were blackened, and her toes were so injured that, they would shortly "have dropped off. Her stepmother had branded her on the back with a hot poker. She held her finger in a lamp to burn it, and put it in a door and squeezed.it. She also dug a fork in her. hand, and the mark oh her hand was caused by it] She had a chillblain, and after hammering it with a hammer she put it into boiling water, and then covered it,with salt and then with sugar. Everyday, before she dressed it, she used to strike it with a piece of wood. She also hit her several times on the head with a cane. As a result of 4 mental sympathy ’ caused by this ill-treatment she ..has now got heart disease, and , will probably die. The stepmother, who was indicted at the Middlesex Sessions, was only twenty-four years of age,; and according to the prosecuting counsel she ! has treated four other step-children in the 5 same way. If ever the vindictive theory of punishment advocated by Sir J. Fitzjames Stephen could be justified it would be in such a case as this, but probably she will receive a more . lenient sentence than if she had picked a pocket or stolen a turnip.