Sentence of penal servitude for life was passed at Manchester Assizes on John Whalley, 32 years, fitter, of Accrington, Lancashire, for cutting off his step-daughter's hands. Whalley married Mrs. Wildman, a widow, two years ago. Their married life was unhappy.
After a violent quarrel on September 17 his wife left, taking her little daughter. He took the child from school next day, cut off her hands in his room, and was found in the back kitchen with a rubber gas tube in his mouth. He told the doctor he wanted to get at the mother through the child. Mr. Justice Branson described the crime as a cold, calculated, and fiendish attempt to be avenged upon the wife. It was the most horrible story he had ever listened to. Mr. E. Wooll, for the prosecution, said that £6000 had been publicly subscribed for the little girl, a tribute, be added, to the warmhearted sympathy with innocent childhood.
CHILDS HANDS CUT OFF (1924, March 15). Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld. : 1878 - 1954), p. 8.
