THE STORY OF A STOLEN BABY.

Evening Post, Volume XLVI, Issue 19, 22 July 1893, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE STORY OF A STOLEN BABY.

At Lambeth Police Court recently a woman named Mary Boyle, of Olney street, Wai worth, was charged with stealing from one Julia Reed, of Keinnington, a baby and £3 in money. Only formal evidence for arrest was taken, and the prisoner was remanded for a week. The details surrounding the case are somewhat remarkable. On the 26th April the woman Reed, who is about 23 years of age, unmarried, and a governess, was confined at a house in JCennington of a male child. In a weekly paper of the 29th April an advertisement appeared asking some kindly-disposed person to adopt the week-old offspring of an unmarried lady. Replies to the advertisement were to bo aent to a newsagent's shop in tho Walworth Road. Among the answers received was one from the woman Boyle, who stated she was the wife of a large coal merchant at .Eastbourne ; and, as she had just lost a baby of her own, was willing to adopt the " little darling " After a somewhat lengthy correspondence, which was conducted through the medium of the rewspaper shop, the women agreed to meet at London Bridge Station last Saturday week, when the baby was handed to Boyle, who, it is alleged, persuaded the mother to lend her £3 to purchase linen, etc., " just to surprise her (Boyle's) husband." Reed gave the money, and left her with the promise that she should see the baby once a week. The first occasion agreed upon was Friday last at London Bridge Station. Reed waited about the station all day, and met every train arriving from Eastbourne, but no sign of the baby or Boyle was to be Been. As the day began to draw on the mother became anxious, and she sought the advice of Detective Inspector Harvey, of the Kennington Lane Police Station. Mr. Harvey closely questioned Reed, and obtained a description of ths woman who received the chilcl. The description _Bp..*sKLil with, that of Boyle, who is hnown to the police as a babyfarmer, that on Saturday Mr. Harvey went to see her. She acknowledged receiving the baby, but declined to say anything regarding the £3. When asked what had become of the child, she said it had gone into a clergyman's family at Leicester, but she could not give the address. Mr. Harvey, after completing some formalities, took the woman into custody. On Sunday she was again asked where thu child was, and if she had killed it. She replied that if she got fifty years she would never say what had become of it. The baby's clothes have been found in Boyle's house. The missing infant child has been found under strange circumstances. Owing to inquiries that had been made, the mother, accompanied by a detective, visited the Hastings Workhouse, where the child was discovered to be. It had boon found lying in a ditch in a lonely lane, and appeared to be none the worse for its exposure.