TERRIBLE ACT OF A DRUNKEN FATHER.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1313, 10 March 1885, Page 1

TERRIBLE ACT OF A DRUNKEN FATHER.

Simuel A’Court, blacksmith, was chargad at the R.M. Court, Christchurch,/ on Saturday morning with inflicting grievous bodily harm on his daughter, a girl-of fifteen, by means of burning with a kerosene lamp. The injuries that the girl has received are so severe that she, will be confined to her bed probably for three weeks, and the accused was accordingly formally remanded to March 14. It appears that on Thursday night I>»f, about nine o’clock, A’Oourt came home intoxicated a 1 d found his daughter, Miss Nina A Court, tinting b$ the fire read cgbythe v light of a kerosene lamp on the table close by. In a fit of temper, induced by the drunken sta e he was in, he seized the lamp and, after making use of abusive expressions to his daughter, dashed it towards the fireplace. The lamp’ burst, aud some of the burning oil failing into the grate fitted up the chimney, while Miss A’Coun’s dress was also, ignited. A’Couit rushed out, leav>ng his daughter in flames. Her screams attracted the attention of her mother, who was ip the house of a neighbor near by, who fortunately came in in time to save her daughter from fatal injuries, Mr* A'Court’s bauds were badly burned in her endeavors to throw her daughter- down and roll something round her to atifle the flames.