INHUMAN CONDUCT OF A HUSBAND.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2517, 14 April 1881, Page 2

INHUMAN CONDUCT OF A HUSBAND.

(From the “ Warnambool Standard,’’ March 26.)

At the Warnambool Police Court on March 25, before Mr.T. King, Mayor, and Mr F. P. Stevens, J.P., John Kerr was charged with an aggravated assault upon his wife, Eliza Kerr. The prosecutrix stated that on Sunday, the 20th, the defendant asked her to push a waggonnette. She did not please him in doing it, He abused her very much, and"ordered her inside the house. On her way he kicked her several times, bruising lier thighs. When she was inside the house defendant locked the door. He then told her she must prepare for death, and that she was to say all she had to say in a short time. He got a rope (throe quarters of an inch in diameter,) made a noose, and fastened it round her neck. She made an effort to take it off her neck, but he threatened to break her arms if she attempted to remove it. Ho threw the other end of the rope over the quartering of (ho roof, the dwelling not being ceiled, and hauled on to it. It would not slip on the beam, so he mounted a chair and succeeded in pul ling her np. She remained hanging, but she could not remember for how long a time, as she became insensible. The next thing she remembered was her being on the floor, with the rope round her neck, and (he defendant threatening to hang her up again. She implored him not do so, ami he desisted, after telling her to get up, and using further threats. He was not drunk. It was customary, when he came home, for him to abuse her in this manner. They lived in an isolated part of Purnim, there being no bouse nearer than a quarter of a mile to them. In reply to Mr Higgins, who appeared for the accused, prosecutrix said she believed the cause of all this illtreatment from her husband was jealousy. She could not say what necessity there was for him to be jealous. He was jealous of everybody and no one in particular. She had bad letters from a man named Cowley some 12 years ago. They were not love letters, but merely letters of friendship. Prosecutrix answered all the questions put to her by the defendant when he was putting the rope round, her neck. He did not simply put the rope round her neck and draw it tight, but hauled her up to the beam, as stated. She could not say how she came down, as she became insensible. The mayor remarked that the line of cross-examination was making matteis woise. Mr Higgins said he was merely showing that there was some cause for chastisement on the part of the defendant. Dr W. 11. Owen stated that on the 22nd inst. prosecutrix came to him to be examined. He found the skin of her neck had been injured all round about an inch in breadth. There was an excoriated wound under the left ear, bruises on her thigh, her left temple, and over the right eye. Her tongue was bitten in three or four places ; in one nearly through. The Bench sentenced the defendant to three months’ imprisonment in Portland gaol, with hard labour.