Court Action Over Child's Identify

Northern Advocate, 11 August 1948, Page 5

Court Action Over Child's Identify

MELBOURNE, Wed.—An order nisi was granted today in the Practice Court by Mr Justice Barry calling upon Mr and Mrs Noel Jenkins to show cause why a writ of habeas corpus should not be granted requiring them to surrender a child known as Noella Jenkins, aged three. Mrs William Morrison alleged that the staff of the Kyneton District Hospital confusfld the identity of two baby girls born within minutes of each other three years ago. DARK AND FAIR Mr and Mrs Morrison proposed that Mr and Mrs Jenkins should accept a child reared as their daughter and known as Johanne Lee Morrison in return for Noella Jenkins. Mrs Morrison stated in an affidavit that after the birth of her child a sister brought her a dark-haired baby which carried no identification tag, and that as the baby grew it became unlike herself, her husband, their .other children. At a race meeting she saw Mrs Jenkins wheeling a pram in which was a fair, blue-eyed child. BLOOD TESTS Mrs Morrison said she had blue eyes and Mrs Jenkins brown. Blood tests taken of Mr and Mrs Morrison and the child Johanne proved that she could not be their child. Mr and Mrs Jenkins had refused to have a blood test taken of the child Noella.

The judge ruled that a prima facie case had been made out and granted an order so that the matter could be properly investigated.