WIFE BEATING.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1037, 16 February 1882, Page 4

WIFE BEATING.

In a case of wife-beating at Dunedin, •the report of the chief evidence given \ ran as follows :—“ Hannah Gawne, a I young woman, and wife of the accused, j was next called. Her face was black j and blue, and much swelled, arid being: too weak to stand in the witness box, site was accommodated with a chair.; She-stated that on the night in question, about 1 o’clock, she was in bed, | and hearing a loud knock, got up, lit i a candle, and opened the door for her j husband. He came tn, and after she ; got to bed he canght her by the throat, j and pressed a pillow over her head.; He then hit her on the head two or three times with a small bottle of porter which he had tn his hand. He also hit her in the face with his shut fist. She said ‘ Don’t be cruel; let me • alone,’ and was putting on her clothes when he again struck her on the head. She gave no provocation whatever. On coming from her father’s house to look for a constable, the accused came up behind, caught her by the hair, and dragged her along the ground to the towards his house. On reaching the corner of Argyle-street she became faint and weak, and fell on the ground. The accused then dragged her along the ground to the house for about 20 yards, and threw her on the floor of the room. He then locked the front door, and also the door of the bed-room where they both were. 'Witness sat down in a chair, and the accused hit her several times on the face with his fist, knocking her on the floor. He than told her to get up, and hit her again making the blood run down her ears and nose. On going to the docter she was almost senseless, and did not know what she was doing. The accused had only beaten her once before. The Grand Jury found “ No true bill” against William Gawne, who thus assailed his wife, and the Otago Daily Times charges them with having paltered with their consciences, and inflicted a grevious wrong upon society.