§ EARL PERCYasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether his attention has been called to the case of Hannah Martin, a farmer's wife, who is reported to have been charged before the stipendiary magistrate at Hanley, on the 7th of April last, with having, for a trifling offence, beaten her child of nine years old while naked, and afterwards rubbed turpentine and salt into the wounds; the child being in consequence of this treatment "one mass of wounds from neck to feet"; and, whether it is true that
The magistrate, taking a lenient view of the ease, cautioned the woman and inflicted a nominal fine and costs, which amounted to one guinea?
MR. ASSHETON CROSSSir, this is an instance of a newspaper paragraph grossly misrepresenting the facts of a case, so far as I am able to ascertain them. I only wish that, in reporting these cases, the persons responsible would be more careful in being accurate; because I am sure that, unintentional though it may be, such a representation of the proceedings of a Court of Justice is calculated to have a very bad effect throughout the country. The magistrate who dealt with the case writes to me—
It will be in your recollection, that, a few weeks ago, I was in communication with you relative to another case which I tried at Stoke-upon-Trent, a report of which, as it appeared in some of the London papers, was a sensational one, and the invention of some local reporter. 12 The same statement applies to this case. The woman charged was the aunt, not the mother, of the child. The child beaten was not naked, but was in her usual dress; and no turpentine or salt was used. In deciding the case, I was of opinion that the girl had received no more punishment than she really deserved, and I hesitated whether or not I should dismiss the summons; but as the mother was a poor woman living several miles off, and had taken out a summons, influenced by the fears of her daughter and some falsehood which had been told her, I ordered the costs to be paid, and inflicted a nominal fine of 1s."I may add that a Question was given Notice of the other day with regard to another case. I presume the hon. Member found the statement untrue, and accordingly has not put the Question.