Mexborough & Swinton Times – Friday 03 June 1892
Relations at Loggerheads at Conisborough
Conflicting Testimony
Benjamin Stanley, labourer, new Conisborough, was charged, on remand, with having assaulted Elizabeth Thurston, married woman, Conisborough
Mr Baddiley appeared for the defendant
The complainant said on April 2 she was cleaning the yard, and her brother came up and gave her a bad blow on the right temple. She ran in order to get out of his way, but he knocked her down and kicked her on her left side. He kicked her three or four times.
Mr Baddeley: What was the beginning of the disturbance? – I was having words with my sister.
You have a sister called Harriet Oakes? – No; Harriet Standley.
She lives next door? – She used to do, but does not now.
Were the words the beginning of the disturbance? – Yes, that day. The children had fallen out, and she complained to her sister about her child’s spitefulness. A sister and a woman named McHale then came out and black guarded her.
Had you used bad language to your mother? – No.
Did your brother complain of your using bad language to your mother? – No.
What made him strike you? – Because I would not lend him money for beer a week before.
Did you call your mother a – – –? – No, but I did my sister.
Was that a proper thing? – Yes, because she is one.
Did your mother tell you ought to know better? She said we were both calling one another –
Were you sober? – Yes
William Calladine said he saw the defendant knock his sister down and kick her four or five times. Then he stood over and said he would knock her – – – head off. He had been hiding behind the closets.
Eliza Shipman said she also saw the assault, and she said to the defendant, “Don’t strike her any more; she’s only a woman.” He knocked her down near the doorway and kicked her. The mother was there at the time.
Claire Calladine said family affairs were the cause of the assault. She knew nothing about what they were. After the woman got knocked down she could not get up, and was lifted up.
Cross-examined, she said the parties were “always falling out and carrying on.”
Mr Baddiley said the defence was a contradiction as far as the kicking was concerned. But the defendant pushed his sister because of her bad language, and she fell down. She thoroughly deserved all she got if what she said about her was true.
A young man named McKay was called for the defence. He said he heard the complainant calling her mother very foul names, and he said if she was his sister he would “swing for her.”
Mr Baines: Was that the advice you gave? – Yes.
And do you think that right? – Yes.
Continuing, the witness said the defendant never struck his sister; she was the worse for beer.
Mr Baines: Will you swear he did not hit her? – Yes.
The complainant said the witness had been drinking along with her husband. He was not present when she was assaulted. She had been under treatment by Doctor McCall since the assault.
Harriet Standley, the sister of the complainant, said her brother only pushed the complainant. Her sister had been using bad language.
Eliza Standley, the mother, said the complainant had turned out most filthy language; she told them both to go in.
Complainant: My brother struck me, and you said “Give it her.” He then knocked me down and kicked me.
Annie McKay said she was in the street at the time of the occurrence. The complainant was not struck. She was not sober and she fell.
The complainant said this was false swearing.
The Chairman said it seemed to the magistrates “a case of pot and kettle.”
The defendant was discharged