ABANDONED CHILD

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 78, 14 January 1936, Page 6

ABANDONED CHILD

WOMAN TO BE SENTENCED. PATHETIC CIRCUMSTANCES. “WOULD BE LOOKED AFTER BETTER.” fPer Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. Pathetic circumstances which led to a child being abandoned at Woolworth’s on December 20 were related at the Magistrate’s Court this morning. Delia Rabbitt, a domestic, aged 25, pleaded guilty to a charge of abandoning Gordon Nathaniel Brown, a child under the age of two years, was committed for sentence. Two statements made by Rabbitt disclosed her reason for wishing to be rid of the child. “I thought he would be better looked after,” she said in one statement, which contained the information that she was a single woman. Rabbitt, in a statement to tiie police, said her parents knew nothing of the two children, and she had decided to return home. She left the girl with a friend. She suggested to Nathaniel Brown, a well-borer, now of Masterton, but at that time of 1 Greymouth, who was the father of the children, that the hoy should he put in a home. Brown said that if she did that their names would be brought up, and he suggested that the best thing to do would be to leave the child where he could be picked up by a constable and no one would know who left him. She was entirely guided by Brown. Brown gave her money for her fare from Greymouth to Christchurch. Continuing, Rabbitt said she took the boy to Woolworth’s and while she was at the counter the hoy walked away a hit and she saw a girl pick him up. On the spur of the moment accused walked out of the shop. She thought he would be better off in a home. She saw, while on the way to Dunedin, that the boy had been found and she felt 'relieved. She made no attempt to claim him, andi intended to leave him so long as he was properly looked after. If Brown had not suggested abandoning the boy she would not have done it. Brown always maintained the children, although there was no order of the Court. Waldon McLaren Mathews, employed at Woolwoith’s, described finding the child, which he held up to view in the shop. The shop was particularly crowded at the time the child was found. Later the child was handed to the police. Nora Fitzgerald, housemaid at the new Railway Hotel, said that on December 20 Rabbitt booked in under the name of Mrs McDonald. Rabbitt had two children, a girl and a hoy, with her. The following morning witness noticed only one child with the woman. Rabbitt, who pleaded guilty, was committed for sentence.