Horrible Treatment of a Girl by Her Father

                                 

"A Father Putting his Daughter in Chains"

 In Issue 448 of the Illustrated Police News on September 14, 1972, Charles Payne, a brickmaker, was charged with assaulting his daughter who was about sixteen years old at the time.  He had placed chains on her legs which connected to her neck which the chain was tied tightly around, essentially strangling her whenever he pulled the chain.  His justification for this treatment of his daughter was that she had committed a series of petty thefts, which 'annoyed' him.  A female bystander believed the girl was being murdered as her face turned black from the restriction of the chain and ran to get the police.  When confronted by the police, Mr. Payne had his hand in his pocket which made the police fear that he would attempt to stab them.  The police jumped on him and Mr. Payne resisted violently as the police took the knife from out if his pocket.  In court he claimed he was willing to go quietly with the police, but acted defensively when the police ill treated him.  He was charged and sentenced to six months of hard labor without the option of paying a fine. 

The author of the article inserts the same story into the ending of the article from a different newspaper.  The journalist's voice, from the other newspaper,  asserts in the closing of the article, a statement about the violence men enact on their children, making it appear that a father's cruelty towards his children was not commonplace, but was also not a rare occurrence.  The journalist also states that whatever the sins of the sixteen year girl were, Mr. Payne was a "monster."  He or she relates the father's cruelty to something that occurs "in the depth of Africa."  As Africans were 'otherized' and characterized by the Europeans as 'savages' and 'backwards', the writer seems to dehumanize both Mr. Payne and the entire continent of Africa.  Mr. Payne is dehumanized due to the prejudices and misconceptions of the time associated with "the other" and Africans were dehumanized through this comparison because the journalist claims the father's actions were ones that would be committed in Africa.  By putting Africans and Mr. Payne on the same level, misconceptions about Africa are exacerbated.  The journalist states "even there the human brutes do not chain and drive their own children."  The journalist from the other newspaper seems more sympathetic to the incident and highlights how this incident should not be normalized and fathers should not be able to treat their children so harshly and be seen as still as fully human.

It seems that those involved in the story disapproved of Mr. Payne's actions as well.  Mr Kennard, who had Mr. Payne arranged for the assault, was said to have lectured Mr. Payne on the treatment of his daughter as well as the police.  It seems throughout the article in the Police Illustrated News that there is an emphasis on the incident with the police rather than the ill treatment of his daughter as before the line declaring Mr. Payne's sentence, Mr. Kennard claimed that his treatment of the police was "disgusting and disgraceful."  The punishment of only six months hard labor for such extreme maltreatment of a daughter seems inadequate, but perhaps the punishment would have been less if Mr. Payne had not acted with resistance and violence towards the police.  This focus on the cruelty towards police was more so done by the Illustrated Police News, while the other newspaper mentioned, questioned what Mr. Payne meant by petty thefts, claiming that many fathers who enact violence on their children use this same excuse, but never fully explain what is meant by petty thefts.  This shows that the other newspaper seems to be analyzing a systemic problem within Victorian society rather than an isolated event in regards to violence towards police.  

In contrast with the article I read last week where a mother was charged with allegedly stabbing one of her sons, the tone of the article in regards to a man's act of violence against his children appears to be less disturbing and people seem more willing to accept the father's actions as reality whereas the mother's actions were hesitantly accepted to be true.  In the article I read last week the story was titled, "The Alleged Murder in Lambeth," with the word 'alleged,' suggesting a discomfort in a mother's cruel treatment of  her children while "A Father Putting his Daughter in Chains" is very straightforward and does not question the scene as something that may not have happened.  Violence towards children from the father seems commonplace and almost normalized as seen through the other newspaper's analysis of the incident by saying "many men" when referencing abuse done to daughters by their fathers.  This reinforces the gender dynamics characterized in the Victorian period as men as violent creatures while women are nurturing ones.  This is why both newspaper articles seemed to accept the father's cruelty, while the article where the mother murdered her child in the Police Illustrated News tried to portray the woman's actions as an accident and done out of a fit of passion rather than blatant, relentless cruelty.

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