A PAINFUL CASE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 217, 22 December 1910, Page 6

A PAINFUL CASE

JUDGE'S SYMPATHY WITH POV-ERTY-STRICKEN MOTHER. London, October *2G. A painful case was 'heard at the Central Criminal Court on Saturday, when Emily King, aged 39, a widow, of Aintreestr.eet, Fulham, was indicted for attempting to murder iher son, Herbert King, aged seven, by cutting her throat with a razor, and with attempting to commit suicide by cutting her own throat. The accused was a widow with a large family. For seven months past the struggle had been very severe. When her husband, who was a chef, was alive, the family was ih comfortable circumstances, but lately the children had appealed for food. Neighbors said that she was a hard-working woman, who had done 'her ibest to bring up her children properly and find food for them.

•In summing u|), his Hitid it was a pa/infiil case, and the dilllculty was for him, not for the. jury. If they found that «he committed the net wliilo of unsound mind she would the sent to n criminal asylum--a course thai, nobody desired. if they decided that she would not 'have injured her boy lm<( a policeman ibeen ntandiiig by, they must leave the punishment to 'him iih a judge. Because a judigc wore grand houi'lH robe* he was none ih« less a mini w14.1i the same feelings and ailed,ions an tile jury. The jury returned with a verdiel, of "OuiJly," willi a slnwg recommendation to mercy.

Mr*. Kin# stoml up limply, and iulili'Ohm. in# ih«r his lonMiip miid 'that no one wlio had heard Ihe <«viiliiiici« eoulil be anything hut <'<hiviix-i'd that nlie liad cotumitted tlits oll'eneen an 'the natural result of tin', /rri'id, pressure of poverty mid wil h the feeling of a mother \vln» wiik iiiiiil»h> to jrive huv children food and thought they niitfhl, he turned out of llm houso. His 1/inlHiliip abruptly 'hro|<e oil' l.ix-on-suit with Iho cleric and one or two others, and Uum Hl,al,eil that for reasons which he did no|, desire to make public lie would poHt|)iine sentence until next ses.sioiiH.