Victorian Crime. Cruelty to a lunatic in Sunderland
In September 1870 the Illustrated Police News printed a story which said Cruelty to a lunatic in Sunderland, but like the lunatic the police could not tell fact from fiction either. Mrs Armstrong of 96 Mainsforth Terrace, New Hendon was visited by Constable Peacock to investigate rumours of a woman in chains locked in a bedroom. Mrs Armstrong said there was a woman and brought her for the Constable to see, the woman was haggard looking and told the Constable that she had been chained to her bed. On being told this Constable Peacock insisted on seeing the woman's bedroom, the smell coming from the room was so strong the Constable took several deep breaths before entering.
What he found was a bed a broken box used as a table, ropes lying on the floor and the window nailed shut. The woman called Mary Ann Hobson told police she had been chained nude to the bed, beaten and very badly used for nine years, she was taken to the union. According to the police paper this was an horrendous cruelty case.
In court Mrs Armstrong's defence pointed out that after being examined by a surgeon no evidence of cruelty was found and Mary was in good health. As Mrs Armstrong's house was only three years old Mary could not have been locked up for nine years. It was in fact Mary's relations who had paid Mrs Armstrong to look after Mary, but Mrs Armstrong had still broken the law. She was charged for taking care of a lunatic for profit, without a license and for shaming and ill using said lunatic. Mrs Armstrong got a three month sentence. Mary Ann Hobson had a choice, the workhouse or another career.
