EXCLUSIVE BRETHREN

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29818, 10 May 1962, Page 12

EXCLUSIVE BRETHREN

Custody Suit In Victoria

fNX Prew A«m.—Copyright) MELBOURNE, May 9. The Chief Justice of the Victorian Supreme Court (Sir Edmund Herring) made an order yesterday prohibiting a member of the Exclusive Brethren from taking her

three etaeet children out of Victoria pending a custody suit The order was sought by George MaxweU Barker, railway fitter, of Ballarat, the father of five children, against his wife, Sylvia May Barker.

Barker, who is suing under the Federal matrimonial law for restitution of conjugal rights, also sought custody of the three eldest children.

Barker claims the break-up of his marriage was the result of a concerted move by the Exclusive Brethren. The Chief Justice granted Barker interim custody of his three eldest children pending the custody case. The eldest children are aged 13. 10 and six. Mrs Barker has the two youngest a-t Largs Bay, in South Australia. According to Barker, the five children were taken to South Australia without his knowledge or consent. He traced them at considerable expense and took the three eldest back to Ballarat. Barker claimed his children had been taken first to NewSouth Wales and then to South Australia by members of the Exclusive Brethren. Unless the Court intervened. he claimed, he had good grounds for fearing that the three eldest children, who were now with him, might again be seized and removed to some secret place, probably in another State or overseas. He called his eldest son. Alan, aged 13, to give evidence. The application was made in chambers