AN UNNATURAL SON.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2307, 29 May 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

AN UNNATURAL SON.

ApAVISKNTENCS,

At tlio GSeelong Assizo Court, over which Air Justice Uolroyd presided, the chief case was thai of Thomas Miuogue, who surrendered to his bail on a charge of haying beaten and illtreated one Margaret Kelly on the 18th October, 1883, and imprisoned her in a home for a period of two years and w'o' months; also with having several times abused her during that period. The Crown Prosecutor detailed the circumstances of the case, as. adduced at the Police Court investigation, and called Margaret Kelly, a widow, and mother of the prisoner, who narrated that her first husband died. in. 1854. and she .-.subsequently■■. married Thomas Kelly, her ;•, late', husband and lived on •. a farm near Moyston, where. Kelly .was subsequently accidently killed. Some time after this, in a fit. of. despondohcy, she attempted, to cut her throat, and:was afterwards attended. to in the Ararat Hospital, from which she was taken by ■ prisoner/will' went to his residence at Darriwell. . She was well. treated for some time,.. Amongst;the'-things she .took to prisoner's house when she wenfc there were two deposit receipts on the Ararat bank-one for £IOO and the other for £BO. Prisoner's-''wife subsequently took them out of, her (witness's) fox and gave them to prisoner. Some time after her arrival at prisoner's place shewastakon before Mr D-vyer, solicitor, in Geolong, and signed certain documents under compulsion by threats. Later on she was. taken and thrust into a building made for her confinement. She was allowed out of the building occasionally; sometimes for short periods, at intervals of from three to nine, days, Prisoner did not ill-treat her until she was ■placed in the dungeon, She was fiequently gagged and placed in a strait-jacket, thrown down, and otherwise ill-used whilst so confined. She remembered on one occasion beiii" ganged and thrown violently upon her bed by the prisoner and his wife, which caused an injury to her back and a flow of blood from her mouth. The drinking water she sometimes received from prisoner's wife was given her in a small tin (produced), the liquid having been previously used in bluing clothes* and she was often obliges! to drink other filthy liquids. She was also occasionally compelled to eat the seeds that she found in the mattress to appease her hunger. In answer to Mr Johnstone, she said it was not true that the prisoner had bought property tor her, Mhei was it true that she was out of her mind during the- period between her husband's death and her enhance into; the Ararat Hospital. She did not try to commit, suicide more than once. Dr P. A.' Croker gave evidence that in September 1883, the prisoner brought Mrs Kelly before him, and wished him to examine. Her; with a view to know whsther she was in a fit mental state to transact business. Witness examined her and found her to be perfectly sane. He aaw her again at the close of last ypsr, and found her much weaker than when he first examined her. Margaret

Duggan, a domestic servant, who had been tho prisoner's employ in Novem ber of last year, gave a description of the place of confinement, and remembered hearing Mrs Kelly, on one occasion crying out, " I am starving alivi in a dungeon," within the hearing of Mrs Minogne.

The addresses to. the jury by the Crown Prosecutor and Mr W. E. Johnstone (prisoner's counsel) and His Honor were very lengthy. The kttei's summing up was the severest on - any prisoner tried in the court for some years. Not a favorable utterance to the prisoner was enunciated, and the address was characterised by a warmth that indicated to the jury what their duty was. They found the prisoner guilty on both counts. His Honor, in sentencing prisoner, commented strongly on his unfeeling conduct towards his mother, and added that he could not'express words of pity for a man who had put a wire gag in his mother's mouth and caused her to 1 live in a room that was not fit for a dog to lie in, Prisoner was then sentenced to six years' imprisonment, with hard labor; tlie first fortnight in the nine months and every subsequent three months to be spent in solitary confinement.—Telegraph.