A BOGUS REFUGEE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 50, 27 February 1915, Page 15

A BOGUS REFUGEE.

GIRL "ABSOLUTELY THE (LIMIT." 'This young woman appears to be absolutely the limit In female depravity and perverseuess." With these words the Warrington police authorities wound up a report of the extraordinary career of Minnie Harrison, a »Varrington woman, twenty-three years old. when her latest exploit—that of posing as a Belgian refugee—was dealt with at the police court of Wallasey, near Liverpool. She was cent to prison for six months' value of 10/ by false pretences from Dr. A. W. Rlddell. ot New Brighton. Airs. Rlddell. the doctor's wife. Is on the Belgian Relief Committee, and she took Harrison, who pretended to he a Belgian refugee, and her baby home. She began to have suspicions about Harrison after the second day, because she so frequently lapsed Into good English Instead of the broken English she had been affecting. She demanded the best of everything, and required a great deal of waiting upon. This, according to Detective-Inspector Pearson, was the statement Harrison made to him when he went to Dr. RJddell'e .house to register her as an alien: "My husband Is a Belgian soldier, but was born at Cairo. At tbe outbreak of war my husband, two brothers, and my , father volunteered for service in the Belgian Army. We all went to Belgium. I was taken to a convent In Louvalu. and a few days later the Germans invaded the town. Onr party, which included several nuns and other refugees, left the town." Later she admitted that she was born at Southpott. It -was stated that she registered herself as Miriam Eugene Stein, a Belgian. From her earliest days Harrison had presented a problem that baffled all who had to deal -with her. judging from the report from the Warrlngton police, read in court. It stated that when quite a young girl she enured both parents and teachers a great deal of trouble by the impossible excuses and lies she put forward when ehe got into any little trouble. At fourteen she ran away from home and was missing for about three weeks, when she was discovered by the police in service, having obtained the 6ltnation through the agency of an old man to whom she told a pitiful tale. Three months after she ran away with a soldier to Dublin. After an absence of seven weeks she was found, and again taken home. Next she waa put In a home in Liverpool, fn>m which she ran away after three days. Three months later she was discovered by an aunt In Bebington Workhouse Hospital, and was nt once restored to her parents. She remained at home three weeks, and again disappeared, taking with her a large quantity of her sister's clothing. Some months afterwards she was heard of as working on the pit brow at Wigan, and was' eventually found by the Widnes police in a destitute condition. Noxt she came under the notice of the Salvation Army, and was admitted to their home in Liverpool, but discharged after a few days. She was once more taken home, but again ran away after a few weeks, and went tramping over Lancashire, -winding up in Liverpool Workhouse Hcspltal. She continued the same manner of life until two years ago, and then. In Warrington Workhouse she gave birth to an illegitimate child. The next her parents heard of her was when she was sent to prison for a month at Northwich for stealing a bassinette. Her mother -met her u u her discharge, but she went off, and wee not heard of again until she got into touch, In June last, with the man who was'how her husband. This man was Arthur Harrison, aged thirty-four, a highly res-pectable railway guard. He was a highly impressionable man, well meaning «n<j sympathetic, and imbued with the idea of helping the fallen. The young women worked on his feelings, telling him wonderfnl tales of her hard !ot,' her trials, and sufferings. Eventually', about three months ago, he married her. On November 24 she packed np her goods and -went off.