The Proceedings of the Old Bailey

 

352.   RICHARD TREADAWAY (40) , Unlawfully assaulting   Elizabeth Treadaway, and occasioning her actual bodily harm.

MR. PURCELL Prosecuted; MR. M. WILLIAMS Defended.

  RICHARD TREADAWAY . I am the son of deceased, and live at Red Lion Yard, New Brentford—on Monday, 6th January last, I was at home between 5 and 6 p.m.—my father came home an hour before mother, who remained at the Catherine Wheel public-house, where they had been drinking together—he went back an hour afterwards to fetch her, but she remained, and he went again, and persuaded her—she came home—I made tea for her, and while having tea they had a few words, and mother aggravated father—they were both very much intoxicated—he slapped her face twice, and struck her a slight back-handed blow on the stomach, about the navel—she was sitting in the chair, and fell out twice—she was so intoxicated she could not hold herself up in the chair—she fell out of it the first time he slapped her face—I picked her up and put her in the chair—she remained sitting in the chair when he slapped her the second time—she fell out of herself the second time—that was before he struck her on her stomach—she then went to bed—in the middle of the night she complained—my father was then upstairs—he went up about a quarter of an hour after her—I was not at home at 6 a.m., when my aunt Maris Cornish came—my mother also fell down twice as she was coming home.

Cross-examined. My father and mother had been down to Collier's public-house, and mother remained behind—father went down to her a second time, and she refused to come home—I succeeded in getting her home, but on the road she fell three times—I was in the room until mother went to bed—I do not know what they were quarrelling about—I have told you all that my father did to her—there was no kicking.

By the COURT. I was examined before the Magistrate—she fell out of the chair herself the second time without any blow—my father struck her below the chest, but it did not knock her on to the floor, nor did I say so before the Magistrate—I cannot write—she remained in the chair when he struck her in the stomach—she complained of pain in the stomach in the middle of the night—I can't say that that was where father hit her the back-handed blow—she became insensible just before 6, and father put her feet in hot water—my father did not hit her the back-handed blow on the chest; it was on her stomach—that did not knock her over on the floor.

The witness's depositions stated: "The prisoner struck her on the chest with his hand a back-handed blow; the blow knocked her on the floor."

  ELIZABETH HUTCHINSON . I live in Red Lion Yard, seven or eight doors from the prisoner—on Monday, 6th January, I heard a disturbance at the prisoner's house—it was past 6 in the evening—I went to see what it

was—I did not go inside—there was a lamp burning, and I could see into the house—Mrs. Othens was with me—I saw the boy Richard pick his mother off the floor, and sit her in the chair—the prisoner was standing by the fireplace—he shoved her out of the chair again with his fist—he struck her on her shoulder, and she fell on the floor—he struck her twice on her face while she was on the floor—she did not get up—I did not see any more, I ran away to my baby.

Cross-examined. I was looking through the window—Richard Treadaway was there all the time—I could see what people were in the room—the boy John, who is a cripple, was there, and the deceased and the prisoner and Richard—I did not see young Tom Treadaway there at all—there was a lamp on the drawers, and if Tom had been there I must have seen him—I did not see any kicking.

  THOMAS TREADAWAY . I was 13 years old last birthday—I was not at home on 6th January when my mother came home—I came home when my brother did; we had been out "cokeing," picking up coke at the gasworks—I came home between 8 and 9—I had been to an entertainment at the schools—my father and mother were both in bed then—my brother the cripple was 19 last birthday—he is not here, he cannot get out of bed.

  JOSEPH WILLIAMS . I am a registered medical practitioner, of Brentford—on 8th January I saw the deceased; she was suffering from bruises on the abdomen and side of her face, and from shock—there was a large bruise to the right of the navel; that was the only bruise on the abdomen—she was very weak and in danger for some days; she partially recovered, but subsequently took fever, from which she died—I made a post-mortem examination, and found one bruise on her abdomen and two on the side of her face—the bruises had nearly healed, and there were no signs of inflammation from them—she vomited a great deal before she died; that was due in the first place to the blow on the stomach, and in the second place to the fever—the bruise was about two inches to the right of and below the navel—the prisoner was not present on the first day I saw her.

Cross-examined. The fever set in on 20th January, and she continued to suffer from then to the day of her death—there was an abrasion of the skin over the bruise on the abdomen, and slight inflammation of the bowels at one part, but not where the bruise had been—I made inquiry of every possible cause of fever, and found that she had been sucking during the week, ice obtained from the River Brent, where the water is impure.

By the COURT. She was very weak and in danger for some days; that was from the injuries—it had nothing to do with the ice—I attributed the typhoid fever to the ice, being unable to find any other cause for it—there was paralysis of the bladder during the first week, which I attribute to the injury on the abdomen, which might be occasioned by a blow.

  JAMES ROBINSON (Police Inspector T 8). I am stationed at Brentford—on 8th January the prisoner was brought there by a constable, who is too ill to come here, and who was too ill to go to the police-court—I read over the charge to the prisoner; it was violently assaulting his wife—he said "I am very sorry; I was drunk, or it would not have happened"—I was at the police-court on the two last days.

GUILTY .— Five Years' Penal Servitude.