TWENTY YEARS FOR WIDOW.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 January 1922, Page 12

TWENTY YEARS FOR WIDOW.

TOY) SONS PUSHED OVER A CLIFF. DRAMATIC COURT SCENE. Dramatic scones were witnessed in the Assize Court at the trial of a ■woman named Niquet, who was convicted of murdering her younger son and attempting to murder his brother ht Conquet, in Brittany, says the Paris correspondent of the Daily Chronicle. It was already dark when the jury ro tired. They returned almost immediately with a verdict of guilty, and the judge passed sentence of 20 years’ hard labor upon this unnatural mother. The case against the woman, who is a widow aged 36, was that she killed the younger boy by pushing him over the cliff. At the same spot she threw Armand, who was IT years old at the time, over the cliff, and went away, be lieving him to bo» dead. He, however, saved his life by grasping a bush, and he was the chief witness. , Jt was stated that the mother, had fallen in love wit It a man who was willing to marry her, but refused to accept the encumbrance of the two boys. Armand, who is now 14, is a typical little Breton—sliprt, strongly built—but of a very timid disposition. “Tell us your version of your tragic promenade on the Conquet cliffs,” said the judge, as the boy stepped in front of him.

The lad raised his head and appeared as if he did not understand the question. He turned his eyes round and caught sight of his mother sitting bet ween two

"endarmes. • Then he looked at the president in an amazed way, and burst into tears.

As for the mother, after a glance at her child, she began to weep. Several times the judge put the question to the young witness, but not a sound came from his lips.

This dramatic incident brought tears to the eyes of many persons, including the jurymen. To end the boy’s terrible ordeal the president asked him: “Did you fall on the rocks?”

The poor lad, screwing his cap x up in his hand, looked up and murmured “Yes.” “Did you not tell people that you had been pushed over the cl ill?” Another murmur which meant “Yes” came from his lips, and once more he burst into tears.

The judge, whose voice was broken by emotion, retrained from asking Hie boy directly whether it wa/i his mother who pushed him into the sea. Ho put the question this way: “When you told iho story of your tragic fall and said who pushed you, did you speak the truth?” r rhere was not a sound to bo heard in the whole court, except the sobs of the boy and those of his mother. Three times the judge repeated the question. At the end the boy looked round to his mother —who had her face buried in ber handkerchief —and between sobs he replied in a murmur “Yes.” Several witnesses who saw Armand after his escape said he told them that his mother pushed him over the cliff.