A CASE OF CRUELTY.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2587, 23 April 1877, Page 3

A CASE OF CRUELTY.

At the Bucks Petty Sessions, held at Slough, Robertson Francis Morris, farmer, ]>er Heath, was charged on a warrant, with cruelly ill-treating Caroline Cartel*, a niirseinaid in his service, and Janet Morris, his wife, was summoned as a joint offender. The girl had to be led into court, and appeared much exhausted. Her left arm was broken and in a sling, her hair short and ragged, and her face very much scarred find bruised. Mr Dodd, surgeon, gave her stimulants as she needed them. She said she entered the prisoner's service at the end of last May, when she was sixteen years old, and almost from the first she had been illused. About a month since she was severely beaten with a poker, which was broken acrdss; her back in the nursery. Mrs Morris pinched her and threatened that if the child cried at night she would give her a good thrashing in the morning. Her master had horsewhipped : her on one occasion, after they had returned from church, because the child had cried during their absence. He placed her across a chair, and, holding her by the arm, pulled up her clothes and hit her across the legs with the whip. She said her master had kicked her more than once since the horsewhipping. Her mistress, she said, had run a dinner-fork and a pair of scissors in her arms, and had frequently made them bleeds Mrs Morris also pulled her hair out with both hands. Sometimes she was pinched by her mistress so hard that, pieces of skin and flesh were torn away. Witness had a father, and eight brothers and sisters, but did not know where to find .them". .She had never written to any one during her service, as Mrs Morris would not allow her to do so. At this stage the girl became hysterical, the case was adjourned, acd she was removed to the-Eton Unionhonse. —The prisoners here charged were again brought before the magistrate on Feb. 14. The girl was still very weak, but.looked better. She was seated during her examination. The accused were several times hissed and hooted in Court. The girl formerly resided with her parents at Richmond, and was taken into Princess Louise's Home at Wanstead, She entered the service of the accused in May, 1876., She now further stated-that she had been beaten with a walking stick, that Mjr» Morris had run a scissors right through her hand, had cut her head open with- a poker two or three times, and. struck her with a shovel. Mr Morris kicked her as she was going down stairs, and again as she was coming tip. One Sunday after the kicking described she left the house and went to a neighbor's house, and fell down four times on the way there. She * was examined there, a policeman was sent for, and he took her in a cart to the Eton Union Workhouse at Slough, where she continued an inmate. Mr Morris once ran a steel fork into her hand and once a silver fork. He left the steel fork in her hand, and she took it out herself. She was not allowed to send her clothes'to the laundress!, because there was blood about them. In cross-examination she said that she should have left before if she had been allowed to go. She-was not allowed to spealc to the other servants. Mrs Monk, a housekeeper, was called, and proved that on some occasions the girl complained to her. The matron at Eton Workhouse proved that the girl was covered with bruises from head to foot, and the house surgeon gave evidence as to her condition. When he first saw her she -was very weak and frightfully bruised, and. her left arm was broken. The fracture could not have been caused by_ a fall, and it was not likely that the injuries had been self-inflicted. A hairdresser was called, whp said that the girl's hair had been pulled out, and not cut. Mrs Sarah i Bobbin asked the magistrates' permission to make a correction in her evidence given i at the last examination. Mr Long, the magistrates' clerk, accordingly read over i heir deposition, when the witness said the wound; stated to have been on the complainant's right groin was really on her j left. The accused were then formally committed to take their trial at the Bucks j Assizes. Mr Dean asked the magistrates to allow the prisoners to find bail, offering at the same, time to provide sureties for a substantial amount, as the trial could not take place till July. The Bench, however, positively declined to entertain the application, the chairman observing that. Mr Dean could apply to a judge in chambers if he desired. The prisoners were then removed from the dock amid the b,is§es 9? those in court, and were ultijnately conveyed to Aylesbury gaol, there to await their trial.. Bail was, however, afterwards tendered and accepted.