BABY ABANDONED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21152, 21 July 1943, Page 2

BABY ABANDONED

CHILD LEFT IN HOTEL PARENTS BEFORE COURT FATHER SENT TO GAOL (P.A.) NELSON, July 21. Parents who abandoned a 13-month-old child in a Christchurch hotel appeared in the Magistrate’s Court charged with abandoning a child under 14 years in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering. The defendants were Albert Henry Wheeler, aged 34 years, and Myra Joyce Wheeler, aged 24 years. Botli pleaded guilty. Wheeler said that his wife was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He could not secure a house, and the hotels and boarding houses refused to have them on account of his wife's screaming. The magistrate: Is that your idea of an excuse? The defendant: I thought it was out of kindness. I thought the little one would get a home. After a while wo thought we were doing right. The magistrate: You ask me to believe that. 1 hope there are not many other fathers and mothers' who have that idea of kindness.

The defendant: We kissed the littleone and cried when we left it. We could not do anything else.

The mother said they had no home for their child.

The magistrate said it was a callous and cruel act. The remarks of Wheeler carried no weight, and he could not. think that any normal mother would do such a dreadful thing. Wheeler was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment, and his wife to 12 months’ probation.