Sections 10-12. Power as to habitual drunkards. 42 & 43 Vict. C. 19. 51 & 52 Vict. c. 19. Evidence of magistrate or two justices shall be exercised only by a sheriff or sheriff substitute. (2) Any person issuing a warrant under this section may by the same warrant cause any person accused of any offence in respect of the child to be apprehended and brought before a justice, and proceedings to be taken for punishing such person according to law. (3) Any person authorised by warrant under this section to search for any child, or to remove any child with or without search, may enter (if need be by force) any house, building, or other place specified in the warrant, and may remove the child therefrom. (4) Every warrant issued under this section shall be addressed to and executed by some superintendent, inspector, or other superior officer of police, who shall be accompanied by the person making the information, if such person so desire, unless the persons by whom the warrant is issued otherwise direct, and may also, if the persons by whom the warrant is issued so direct, be accompanied by a registered medical practitioner. (5) It shall not be necessary in any information or warrant under this section to name the child. Power as to Habitual Drunkards. 11. Where it appears to the court by or before which any person is convicted of the offence of cruelty within the meaning of this Act, or of any of the offences mentioned in the First Schedule to this Act, that that person is a parent of the child in respect of whom the offence was committed, or is living with the parent of the child, and is an habitual drunkard within the meaning of the Inebriates Acts, 1879 and 1888, the court, in lieu of sentencing such person to imprisonment, may, if it thinks fit, make an order for his detention for any period named in the order, not exceeding twelve months, in a retreat under the said Acts, the licensee of which is willing to receive him, and the said order shall have the like effect, and copies thereof shall be sent to the local authority and Secretary of State in like manner, as if it were an application duly made by such person and duly attested by two justices under the said Acts; and the court may order an officer of the court or constable to remove such person to the retreat, and on his reception the said Acts shall have effect as if he had been admitted in pursuance of an application so made and attested as aforesaid: Provided that (a) an order for the detention of a person in a retreat shall not be made under this section unless that person, having had such notice as the court deems sufficient of the intention to allege habitual drunkenness, consents to the order being made; and (b) if the wife or husband of such person, being present at the hearing of the charge, objects to the order being made, the court shall, before making the order, take into consideration any representation made to it by the wife or husband; and (c) before making the order the court shall, to such extent as it may deem reasonably sufficient, be satisfied that provision will be made for defraying the expenses of such person during detention in a retreat. Evidence and Procedure. 12. In any proceeding against any person for an offence under this accused person. Act, or for any of the offences mentioned in the First Schedule to this Act, such person shall be competent but not compellable to give evidence, Sections 12-15. and the wife or husband of such person may be required to attend to give evidence as an ordinary witness in the case, and shall be competent but not compellable to give evidence. take 13.-(1) Where a justice is satisfied by the evidence of a registered Extension of medical practitioner that the attendance before a court of any child, power ton of in respect of whom an offence of cruelty within the meaning of this Act, child. or any of the offences mentioned in the First Schedule to this Act, is alleged to have been committed, would involve serious danger to its life or health, the justice may take in writing the deposition of such child on oath, and shall thereupon subscribe the same and add thereto. a statement of his reason for taking the same, and of the day when and place where the same was taken, and of the names of the persons (if any) present at the taking thereof. (2) The justice taking any such deposition shall transmit the same with his statement (a) if the deposition relates to an offence for which any accused person is already committed for trial, to the proper officer of the court for trial at which the accused person has been committed; and (b) in any other case, to the clerk of the peace of the county or borough in which the deposition has been taken; and the clerk of the peace to whom any such deposition is transmitted shall preserve, file, and record the same. child in evi 14. Where, on the trial of any person on indictment for any offence Admission of cruelty within the meaning of this Act, or any of the offences mentioned deposition of in the First Schedule to this Act, the court is satisfied by the evidence dence. of a registered medical practitioner that the attendance before the court of any child in respect of whom the offence is alleged to have been committed would involve serious danger to its life or health, any deposition of the child taken under the Indictable Offences Act, 1848, or the Petty 11 & 12 Vict. Sessions (Ireland) Act, 1851, or this Act, shall be admissible in evidence c. 42. either for or against the accused person without further proof thereof— c. 93. (a) if it purports to be signed by the justice by or before whom it purports to be taken; and (b) if it is proved that reasonable notice of the intention to take the deposition has been served upon the person against whom it is proposed to use the same as evidence, and that that person or his counsel or solicitor had, or might have had if he had chosen to be present, an opportunity of cross-examining the child making the deposition. 14 & 15 Vict. years. 15.—(1) Where, in any proceeding against any person for an offence Evidence of under this Act, or for any of the offences mentioned in the First Schedule child of tender to this Act, the child in respect of whom the offence is charged to have been committed, or any other child of tender years who is tendered as a witness, does not in the opinion of the court understand the nature of an oath, the evidence of such child may be received, though not given upon oath, if, in the opinion of the court, such child is possessed of sufficient intelligence to justify the reception of the evidence, and understands the duty of speaking the truth; and the evidence of such child, though not given on oath, but otherwise taken and reduced into writing 11 & 12 Vict. c. 42. Sections 15-18. in accordance with the provisions of section seventeen of the Indictable Offences Act, 1848, or of section fourteen of the Petty Sessions (Ireland) Act, 1851, or of section thirteen of this Act, shall be deemed to be a deposition within the meaning of those sections respectively: 14 & 15 Vict. c. 93. 42 & 43 Vict. C. 49. 47 & 48 Vict. c. 19. Power to pro. ceed with case in absence of child. Presumption of age of child. Mode of charging offences and limitation of time. Provided that (a) A person shall not be liable to be convicted of the offence unless the testimony admitted by virtue of this section and given on behalf of the prosecution is corroborated by some other material evidence in support thereof implicating the accused; and (b) Any child whose evidence is received as aforesaid and who shall wilfully give false evidence shall be liable to be indicted and tried for such offence, and on conviction thereof may be adjudged such punishment as is provided for by section eleven of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, in the case of juvenile offenders, or in Ireland by section four of the Summary Jurisdiction over Children (Ireland) Act, 1884, in the case of children. (2) This section shall not apply to Scotland. 16. Where in any proceedings with relation to an offence of cruelty within the meaning of this Act, or any of the offences mentioned in the First Schedule to this Act, the court is satisfied that the attendance before the court of any child in respect of whom the offence is alleged to have been committed is not essential to the just hearing of the case, the case may be proceeded with and determined in the absence of the child. 17. Where a person is charged with an offence under this Act, or any of the offences mentioned in the First Schedule to this Act, or any offence under the Employment of Children Act, 1903, in respect of a child who is alleged in the charge or indictment to be under any specified age, and the child appears to the court to be under that age, such child shall for the purposes of this Act, and the Employment of Children Act, 1903, be deemed to be under that age, unless the contrary is proved. 18. (1) Where a person is charged with committing an offence under this Act or any of the offences mentioned in the First Schedule to this Act in respect of two or more children, the same information or summons may charge the offence in respect of all or any of them, but the person charged shall not be liable to a separate penalty for each child unless upon separate informations. (2) The same information or summons may also charge any person as having the custody, charge, or care, alternatively or together, and may charge him with the offences of assault, ill-treatment, neglect, abandonment, or exposure, together or separately, and may charge him with committing all or any of these offences in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury to health, alternatively or together, but when those offences are charged together the person charged shall not be liable to a separate penalty for each. (3) A person shall not be summarily convicted of an offence under this Act, or of an offence mentioned in the First Schedule to this Act, unless the offence was wholly or partly committed within six months before the information was laid; but, subject as aforesaid, evidence may be taken of acts constituting, or contributing to constitute, the offence, and committed at any previous time. (4) When an offence under this Act, or any offence mentioned in the First Schedule to this Act, charged against any person is a continuous Sections 18-24. offence, it shall not be necessary to specify in the information, summons, or indictment, the date of the acts constituting the offence. viction to sessions. 19. When, in pursuance of this Act, any person is convicted by a Appeal from court of summary jurisdiction of an offence, and such person did not summary con plead guilty or admit the truth of the information, or when in the case quarter of any application under sections six, seven, or eight of this Act, other than an application to a judge or court of assize, any party thereto thinks himself aggrieved by any order or decision of the court, he may appeal against such a conviction, or order, or decision, in England and Ireland to a court of quarter sessions, and in Scotland to the High Court of Justiciary in manner provided by the Summary Prosecutions Appeals 33 & 39 Vict. (Scotland) Act, 1875, or any Act amending the same. c. 62. 20. (1) Where a misdemeanour under this Act is tried on indictment, Expenses of the expenses of the prosecution shall be defrayed in like manner as in prosecution. the case of a felony. (2) This section shall not apply to Scotland. proceedings. 21. A board of guardians, or in Scotland the parish council of any Guardians may parish or combination, may, out of the funds under their control, pay the pay costs of reasonable costs and expenses of any proceedings which they have directed to be taken under this Act in regard to the assault, ill-treatment, neglect, abandonment, or exposure of any child, and in the case of a union shall charge such costs and expenses to the common fund. Supplemental. byelaws. 22. Every byelaw under this Act shall be made by the same authority Provision as to and confirmed in the same way as byelaws under the Employment of Children Act, 1903, or in Scotland as byelaws under section two of the said Act. parents and as 23.-(1) The provisions of this Act relating to the parent of a child Provision as to shall apply to the step-parent of the child and to any person cohabiting with the parent of the child, and the expression "parent," when used in relation to a child, includes guardian and every person who is by law liable to maintain the child. (2) This Act shall apply in the case of a parent who, being without means to maintain a child, fails to provide for its maintenance under the Acts relating to the relief of the poor, in like manner as if the parent had otherwise neglected the child. (3) For the purposes of this Act Any person who is the parent of a child shall be presumed to have Any person to whose charge a child is committed by its parent Any other person having actual possession or control of a child shall be presumed to have the care of the child. charge, or care." wages of 24. In any proceedings under this Act a copy of an entry in the Evidence of wages book of any employer of labour, or, if no wages book be kept, a defendant. written statement signed by such employer, or by his foreman, shall be primâ facie evidence that the wages therein entered, or stated as having been paid to any person, have in fact been so paid: Provided that such copy or statement has been signed by such employer, or his foreman, Sections 24-30. and that the signature of such employer, or foreman, has been witnessed by the person producing the said copy or statement. Vexatious Indictments Act to apply. 22 & 23 Vict. c. 17. Extension of section ten of 25. Every misdemeanour under this Act shall in England and Ireland be deemed to be an offence within, and subject to, the provisions of the Vexatious Indictments Act, 1859, and any Act amending the same. 26. Section ten of the Poor Law Act, 1879, shall be amended so as to include in it as one of the associations or societies to which a board of guardians may, with the consent of the Local Government Board, subscribe, any association or society for the prevention of cruelty to children. 27. The limit of time mentioned in the second proviso of section five ceedings. 48 & of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885, shall be six months after the commission of the offence. Extension of time for pro 49 Vict. c. 69. Right of parent, &c., to ad minister punishment. General definitions. 29 & 30 Vict. c. 118. Application of 28. Nothing in this Act shall be construed to take away or affect the right of any parent, teacher, or other person having the lawful control or charge of a child to administer punishment to such child. 29. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires The expression "local authority" has the same meaning as in the Employment of Children Act, 1903: The expression "chief officer of police means in the city of London and the liberties thereof, the commissioner of city police; in the metropolitan police district, the commissioner of police of the metropolis ; elsewhere in England, the chief constable, or head constable or other officer, by whatever name called, having the chief local command of the police in the police district in reference to which such expression occurs: The expression "street" includes any highway or other public place, whether a thoroughfare or not: The expression "place of safety" includes any place certified by the local authority under this Act for the purposes of this Act, and also includes any workhouse or police station, or any hospital surgery, or place of the like kind: The expression "Industrial Schools Acts" means as regards England and Scotland the Industrial Schools Act, 1866, and the Acts amending the same. 30. In the application of this Act to Scotland, unless the context otherwise requires— The Secretary for Scotland shall be substituted for a Secretary of The expression" local authority" means the local authority for the occurs: 66 The expression court of summary jurisdiction," the expression "petty sessional court," and the expression "justice of the peace mean the sheriff or sheriff substitute : |