MOTHER ACCUSED

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 September 1927, Page 10

MOTHER ACCUSED

A PATHETIC STORY. There was a sequel at Henley-in-Ar-den Police Court to the loss and discovery dead near the canal at Earlswood of a Small Heath child, when Emma Bailey (30), of 42, Mansel Road, Small Heath, was charged with the wilful murder of her child, Peggy Esther, aged three years, and was committed for trial. Mr A. Lawson Walton, from the. department of the Director of Public Prosecutions, said that at 7.45 a.m. on Friday, June 24, accused and the child were in bed. Between 10 and 11 o’clock accused went to her mother’s shop, where she remained for a little while. Later the, same afternoon they were seen on the canal side between Happy Valley and Grimes Hill. At. the latter place she met a Mr. Bradbury, who was on a bicycle, and from him she inquired the way to Grimes Hill Station. Bradbury walked some way with her and left her about half a mile from the station. At five o’clock the same evening Mrs Bailey called at a small shop occupied by Mrs Wilson. She had the child with her and appeared perfectly normal. When at about 7.30 a man named Harry Brown saw Mrs Bailey, she was carrying the child, which might have been asleep, in her arms. On the following day, June 25, at 6.30 in the evening, Mrs Bailey called again at Mrs Wilson’s shop in a state of distress. Her stockings were wet, and when asked why the child was not with her she replied that the child’s hat was in the water. Mrs Wilson asked if Peggy was in the water. The mother replied “No.” On June 26 Mrs Bailey returned home and could offer no explanation of her arrival there without the child. A search was made by the police and the body was found by Sergeant Walton on the canal side near Earlswood on June 27. Near the body was a hat, and near the hat were some letters, which appeared to have been written by the woman as though excusing herself for doing what she was going to do. In one of these she wrote: —If I only had your arms around me I feel I

should be safe. Things will right themselves for you, but I want you to have no other wife. In another letter were the words: —

This is my end; don t think me wick3d, but it is my lot. I have my Peggy vith me. My head has gone completely off my shoulders. God knows alone what he has put me through. All I ask, dear, have no other wife, Will you? . . . God bless you, you arc mine to the bitter end. Herbert Edwin Bailey, pattern maker, the husband, said accused had been under medical care since February last, and had appeared to be morbid and dazed in her manner. Her memory had failed from time to time and she had “noises in the head.” His wife arrived home at 1 a.in. on Sunday, June'26, without the child, and the first thing she said was: “Where’s my Peggy?” Witness said, “Haven’t you got her?” and she replied, “My God.” She could give no account of the child at the time. On her return to the house on Sunday, she did not appear to know where she had been.

Dr. Sanger, Tanworth-in-Arden, who had examined the bocjy, said death was due to drowning. Elizabeth Holcroft, 163, St. Andrew’s Road, Small Heath, said that during the last four years her daughter’s condition had been that of a dazed person, who did not know what she was doing. She complained of noises in the head. Her daughter was very fond of the child.

Mrs Wilson, a widow', living at Bridge View, Haslucks Green Lane, Shirley, gave evidence of Mrs Bailey’s visits to her shop, and said that on the latter occasion when Mrs Bailey came without her child she made a request to be directed to a telephone. Police-sergeant Walton said that in company with Inspector Bush, of the Birmingham Police, he found the body of the child on the bank of the Birmingham and Stratford Canal, near Rumhurst Lane, Tanworth-in-Arden, on the afternoon of June 27. It was w r ell hidden behind bushes and brambles.

Chief Detective Superintendent Jackson said on July 28 he saw the woman detained at Erdington House. He cautioned her, and charged her with the murder of her child, Peggy Esther, by drowning her in the canal on or about June 25. Her reply was: “No.”