Assault on a child

Sarah Thurgood (28), married woman, of Wormley, was summoned for assaulting Theresa Gregory, aged 11, at Wormley, on January 1.  Defendant: ‘I am not guilty. I only boxed her ears’. 

Mary Ann Gregory, wife of Charles Edward Gregory, of Wormley, said that on New Year’s Day at 11 a.m. she was looking out of her window, when some children called her little girl, Theresa, ‘Monkey’.  Theresa replied ‘If I am a monkey Mrs Thurgood is one’.  Defendant, who was standing by her gate, then came up, pulled Theresa by the hair, and punched her on the nose.  Defendant said she had been greatly annoyed by Mrs Gregory’s little girl, Theresa, who was ‘the pest of the district’.  On the day in question she (the defendant) lost her temper, and smacked Theresa’s face.  She did not punch her nose or pull her hair.  The Bench found her guilty and fined her 2s. 6d., or three days.