UNUSUAL CASE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 122, 25 May 1945, Page 6

UNUSUAL CASE

I WOMAN AND CHILD What was described by DetectiveSergeant E. H. Compton in the Magistrate's Court today to be "an unusual case" was outlined when Nola Guthrie, domestic, married, appeared on a charge of making a false statement to the Registrar of Births and also on two charges of obtaining money from the United States Government by falsely representing that a child was born tn her and Joe Thomas Guthrie, a pharmacist's mate in the United States navy. She pleaded guilty to all charges. Mr. Compton stated that a young woman at Auckland became pregnant and advertised for someone to take.the child from birth. The accused was one of the five persons who answered. She wanted no maintenance, and as she was prepared to take the child from birth, it was arranged that she should have it. When the child was born, at a Wellington nursing home, a guide was sent to the mother by the Registrar of Births. The accused filled in the guide, naming herself as the mother and her husband as the father. The accused received 50 dollars a month maintenance for herself and as from last July she had received an additional 30 dollars foi; the child. She had kept the child well. She still had it, but the matter was being referred to the Child Welfare Department, and it might be taken away from her. She had stated that hep husband and his people in the United States were expecting her to have a child, and she did not want to disappoint them. Mr. Compton, added that the accused's maiden namt had been Gleeson, and under that name she had been convicted for drawing maintenance by purporting to be the wife of a soldier overseas. The accused's counsel, Mr. A. B. Sievwright, submitted that her action was one of folly rather than criminal. She did not make an application to the United States authorities, but had been approached by them after they had been notified by the Registrar of Births regarding the child. "The difficulty is that it is the same type of fraud as the last time," said Mr. J L. Stout, S.M. "She pretended to be the wife of a soldier, and now she pretended to be a mother." He ordered her to be detained in custody until Monday, in order to get a probation officer's report.