WIFE-BEATING EXTRAORDINARY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1744, 24 July 1884, Page 3

WIFE-BEATING EXTRAORDINARY.

. » : One of those cases which may be fairly called miscarriages of justice, and which forcibly point to the necessity for an alteration of the law in regard to wife-beaters, came under the notice of the City Bench at Melbourne the other day, Catherine Leucy, a hardworking £k industrious woman, toiling with might main to support herself and two J young children, was placed at the '-tender mercies" of a brutal husband, whose favorite pastime, when "in his cups" consisted in beating his victim till she was black and blue from head to foot, varied by striking her with an axe and sundry attempts to choke her. On this charge he was brought before the city court, but at the solicitation of his deeply-injured wife was " let oil' with a caution," He was no sooner rclea-ed, however, than he immediately jjoceeded to qualify himself for a repeof his barbarity by again getting drunk, and on his wife's return home he violently assaulted her, varying the performance on this occasion by following her into the street and knocking her down, and winding up by making " a desperate attempt to choke her." On the second occasion lie pleaded for " another chance," and an indulgent J* Uencl), presided over by a stipendiary Magistrate, ordered him to find two Biireties of £25 each to keep the peace for six months. On I lie same day another Magistrate very properly S'-nt. a horse-beater to gaol without the option of a fine. The' Argus' comments very strongly on the Leucy case, and says it is unable to express in sufficiently strong terms the raise of the utter absurdity and inadequacy of the punishment, seeing that the nature of the offence would have justified the committal of the amiable husband to hard labor sine die.