ELOPEMENT FRUSTRATED

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 September 1929, Page 4

ELOPEMENT FRUSTRATED

MAN’S OWN DAUGHTER.

SYDNEY, September 12.

A remarkable story of a man who is alleged to have made plans to elope to New Zealand with his own daughter, and who had already purchased engagement and wedding rings for this purpose, was unfolded at .the Newcastle Police Court the other day, when Harold Francis Laver, aged 36, a moulder, was charged with having committed a serious offence on his 16-year-old daughter at Wickham on August. The story is unique in the annals of crime even in Australia. Sergeant Munday said that on August 22 he questioned Laver, and told him that his daughter had made serious allegations against him. Laver admitted, said the sergeant, that he had made his daughter write two letters, one to her mother and another to a Mrs M’Naughton, but he denied the serious offence. He also admitted writing a letter to his wife. A letter said to have been written to Mrs McNaughton by the girl was as follows: “Dear Mrs Mac, —Just a few lines to Bay that I am sorry that I could not give you notice as dad told me when I came from work that I was going, and asked me if I would go wiUi him, which I am doing. I think it ts best for me after the trouble I have just had, and I will ask you kindly if you will give mum the job, for it would suit her, and I am sure that you will be pleased with her. —(Signed) Mary.” The’girl’s letter to her mother, written on the same date, was as follows: —“Deai- Mum, —Now I don’t want you to bo worrying over me going away with dad, because you know that he will always take the greatest care ofme, and as you told dad that, time I was going to clear away to Brisbane that you would not mind so long as I was happy. I am writing to Mrs Mac asking her to give you a job. As soon as dad gets work we will send you money every week. —Your loving daughter, Mary.”

The third letter, which was unsigned, and was said to have been written by Laver to his wife, read: —“Dear Mollie, —I hope you will look on the bright side of things for you know that you and I never agree. We might have a bit of hapiness now, and J don’t want you to worry over Mary, for I will always look after her. I am going away to Newcastle for there is no work here. As soon as 1 get some I will send you some money. Cheer-o girl, and kiss little Harold for me.”

Laver said, according to the sergeant: “I admit buying her a wedding ring and a diamond ring. I sent her mother away, and I intended to go to Sydney with my daughter as man and wife, and stay at an hotel. Next day we were to go to New Zealand as man and wife under an assumed name.” He said that he was going to New Zealand so that the police would not be able to find him. He had intended to abandon his two other children in Newcastle. AVhen Laver vzas confronted by his daughtei- the girl repeated the allegations and Laver admitted buying rings at a pawn shop and getting them altered to fit the girl.

The daughter in her evidence gave details of the alleged offence, and said that on one occasion her father had a razor, and had threatened to cut her throat if she did not do as he wished. Her mother was absent when the offence took place, and her father threatened to cut her throat if she told her mother. AVhen the family moved to AVickham other offences took place. She and her father were out one night when he produced a razor and then made a suggestion to her. “I began to cry,” said the girl, “but he said to me, ‘I have you in my hands now and I am going to do what I like. It’s no use crying.’ AVhen I said I would not go to New Zealand with him he threatened me with the razor, saying, ‘l’ll cut your throat and my own too.’ ”

The girl said that on August 4 her father took her to a pawn shop and bought a wedding and engagement ring for her. They were too small, and he left them to be enlarged. Speaking of -the letters produced in court, the girl said she wrote them at her father’s dictation. She refused to write another to the police saying that she was going away of her own freewill. Under cross-examination she denied that she had been on familiar terms with any other men, but added that she would run away with anyone to get away from her father, and the way ho had been treating her. Mrs Margaret Laver, mother of the girl, said that on her husband’s suggestion she went away for a health trip. “Before 1 went,” she said, “I warned him that there was to be no underhand work with Mary or I would have him arrested on my return. He laughed and told me not to be silly.” She was not sure whether she was glad or sorry that this trouble had come to her husband. Laver was committed for trial.