BRUTAL TREATMENT OF A GIRL IN TASMANIA.

Thames Star, Volume IIII, Issue 1730, 20 July 1874, Page 2

BRUTAL TREATMENT OF A GIRL IN TASMANIA.

A case in which a girl eleven, yeargo* age was cruelly treated'by herfitner wai brought before the police-court, at Fjn'li galj J Tasmania; onj Monday' j sth' Jl^e " As.m^ the recent case, at Heidelberg,^, a most inadequate punishment was inflicted on the defendant. The .magistrates were —Mr J. Stanfield, warden; anct Mr H. Dawson, J. P. The following particular! of tne case are from the Cornwall Chronicle ; —Oflrthe information of John Smith, Superintentent of the Fingal police, F. Herbot appeared to answer to the' charge of ilUusing one Emma Herbot, his daugh- . ter, a girl eleven years of age;; - Defendant pleaded not guilty. Sub-inspector . Quinn, attafelied to the Fingal pdlice, and stationed at Mathinna, depossd—l know the defendant, P. Herbot, now present, who reside* at Mathinna. From information I received I went to tHe defendant* t hut between four and >five,o^,clopk on the evening' of the sth of June. I ■awa>girl',J;here, Emma, Herbot, Am* room off the hut. The room was very dark. I called for, a light to see the girl. ~ Mrs Herbot" pulled some things from the window/to)fidmlt the.light. I then saw ' ■ the girl now, present in a corner, of the]/ room.' She was in a state of nudity.-TShf had a rope made of Some calico found her ■. body.' ItWai woun* t j^iri^io^d \#t

body, and another peice of rope was tied to it and fastened to a large nail driven into the wll of the hut. 'I asked the' defendant's wife to unfasten the girl, and' she did so. I examined the girl aDd found three marks, one black one and two reddish ones, on her back, and several elsewhere. I asked Mr». Herbot how sho could ill-use the child and confine her in that state P She replied, " Oh! it is not me thii. time, her father has punished 1 her." I saw the defendant and had a. conrersation with him, and informed himi it was yery cruel to tie the child up as he had qbne. He replied "it had come to something when ho cduid not correct his own child; ho had beaten her^ for stopping outfall night from home.",; I told him I would report his conduct. The unirersal report at Mathipnais "that the girThas been constantly ill-U3ed. To 1 I the Bench—The marks 1 have spoken of appeared to hare been inflicted by a rod. Tnere 'was n6 fire in the room where the ■ cfcilff was tied up. In the marks r'sawi on the girl the skin was not broken. The marks were on the legs and back. The • girl .appeared to hare been crying very 1 much. The punishment, in my opinion, , had been hflicted on the bare body.l Mrs TBEerbot is not the mother of the girl, and is not the wife of the defendant. - The child,.when I saw her, was very c01d... ..The magistrates retired, and after a short deliberation returned into court, and fined ,tho defendant £10, in default > three months in gaol, but allweod him fourteen days to^pay it in. Mr Dawson said a more digraceful case lie never heard. He was the father of a large family himself, and the conduct of the defendant had positively disgusted him. Defendant was the father of the child,'and common humanity shonld have taught him* as the author of her being, to display affection.to her. For himself he should have liked to hare inflicted th c full penalty viz., £20, or six months t° gaol. The warden said for the fature, if another case of a similar nature came before him, he would, impose the-full penalty the law allowed.