Sheffield Evening Telegraph – Monday 27 August 1888
Advised to Behave like Human Being.
Patrick McDermott, miner, of Denaby, was summoned for having assaulted his wife, Mary McDermott, on the 11th.
Defendant pleaded guilty.
The wife, on entering the witness box, said she wished to settle the case, but the magistrates’ clerk informed her that this could not be done “without the Bench hearing all about it.”
He proceeded question her, she was evidently reluctant to say anything against the defendant. He elicited from her that when she applied for the summons her face was one mass of bruises. She had a large bruise on her side and on her leg. All these injuries, she said, had been caused by her husband, who assaulted her while she was in bed. He afterwards pulled her from the bed, and then kicked her violently
Mr. Williams, clerk in the magistrates clerks’ office, gave evidence to the bruises which he saw when the summons was applied for. In consequence of her condition summons was granted without the customary fees.
The Chairman said the defendant was liable to six months’ imprisonment, and his wife had pressed the case they would very likely have committed him for a long period. As it was he would fined 20s. and costs.
Defendant ought to behave like human being to his wife, and not like a brute.