ALLEGED BABY FRAUDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8556, 2 May 1891, Page 2 (Supplement)

ALLEGED BABY FRAUDS.

EXTRAORDINARY CASE.

A case which is expected to lead to some remarkable disclosures was opened at Bowstreot, a few days ago, before Mr. Lushington. Chief-Inspector Abberline and Inspector Forest have been getting the case up ; and it was whispered about the court that the namss of some titled people will crop up during the hearing. Mr. Horace Avory (instructed by tho Hon. Mr. Cuffe, of the Treasury) prosecuted, and Mr. Wallis (of Messrs. Wilson and Wallis) defended. The prisoners wore Joseph and Edith Roodhouse, the former a man of about 36, attired in a light brown suit, while his wife, who was seated during the hearing, was a fair-haired, pink-faced woman of about 30, wearing a brocaded coat, trimmed with beaver, a fur boa round her neck, and a hat of crimson velvet, trimmed with black wings. Tho nominal charge against thorn was one of obtaining money by false protences.

Mr. Avory said this was certainly the first time a fraud of this kind had ever boon brought to light in a court of justico. Although they wore formally charged with obtaining various sums of money by false pretences, tho real case against the prisoners was that they had obtained infanta by false pretences. They got tho infants under the pretencos of adopting them as thoir own, and then passed them off to other persons, either inducing these persons to adopt the children as their own, or disposing of them in some other way yet to be brought to light. The system which they had pursued for a considerable time past —and he spoke of the two jointly, because tho evidence indicated conclusively that they had been acting together, tho man writing the necessary letters and agreements and so on—was to insert an advertisement in a newspaper—stating that a married lady who was childless was desirous of entirely adopting an infant, terms to be arranged by letter only to Mrs. Norris, 10, Hampstead Koad, N.W. For the purpose of these advertisement fictitious names wore used, and various addresses, such addresses being newspaper or sweetstufF shops, where letters could be called for Having by such advertisements got some person—of whom, ho dared say, there were many in the world —anxious to get rid of an encumbrance in the shape of a child, the female prisoner would enter into correspondence with the motherthe child was generally illegitimate, of coutso —giving particulars of the reasons why she was so anxious to have a baby to adopt. She would say she had been married five years, that sho had no family, and saw no likelihood of having any. Therefore, she did nob mind whether tho infant sho desired to adopt was a boy or girl, bus she stipulated in every case that she should require the child to be given up entirely, and not claimed again by the mother. Tho object of that would bo seen later. In each case the female prisonor then called upon tho mother, representing that her husband, the male prisoner, was in a responsible position in the provinces. In one instance, he was in a cotton mill in Preston ; in another instance he held a responsible position in Birmingham. For baby-linen and other requisites she would obtain from tho mother a sum varying from £3 to £5 and £(}, In one instance, which would be proved, she obtained as much as £15. Having got possession of the child thus she would go through the form of writing a letter purporting to come from Birmingham or Preston, as the case might bo, saying they had arrived quite safely with the "dear baby," and giving details as to tho way the child had behaved on the journey, how fond it was getting of it.* foster mother, and so on—a lot of disgustingly effusive and endearing expressions of that sort, in order to make the mother believe that tho child would bo well cared for. In overy instance she went on to say that her husband was so anxious that the child should nob be claimed b;-.ck from them ; they were both so anxious never to part with it that she could nob give their address at Birmingham or Preston, but must request all correspondence to bo sent to the address originally given in the advertisement. In that way for a time they avoided inquiries being made, and to make matters doubly sure they always had an agreement drawn up by which the mother undertook never to claim the child back. Having written those letters as if she were a person in whom the maternal instinct was strongly developed, instead of ever taking the child to Birmingham or Preston, it transpired that at the time siie was obtaining possession of children by those false representations, the pair were inserting advertisements to get someone else to adopt the children, and they appear to have been generally able to turn the childnot with all its clothes, but just those it sat inover to someone else. To indicate the extent to which this fraud had been carried on, Mr. Avory mentioned that in one instance, in order to put a stop to the mother's inquiries as to what , had become of her child, the woman actually wrote giving the minutest details : of the child's movements—how-she feared the child might nob live, then how tho doctor had to be called in, and how eventually it had unfortunately died. In that particular case the police had not been able to trace what had become of the child, whether it had died or not. Perhaps it had died. Perhaps it had been disposed of in some other way. When tho prisoners succeeded in getting someone to adopt these children perhaps no harm was done ; but when nobody came forward to adopt them it? was impossible to say what became of the bairns. Perhaps the fact, of which probably everyone was aware, that daily children were found exposed or abandoned in the streets of London might account for the disappearance of some of these. He mentioned this because there might hereafter bo a more serious aspect of this case than the one at present charged against the prisoners. He would mention one case to justify this remark. In tfi'at instanco a child was taken from a woman on tho receipt by the prisoners of £5 or £<>. A day or two afterwards it was passed on to another woman. When it left its mother it had a full rig-out of clothing, and was perfectly healthy. When ib passed from the hands of the prisoners it went merely with the clothing it was then dressed in, and upon examination either tho same night or the next morning it was found to be ravenously hungry, filthily dirty, and suffering from bronchitis and suppressed measles. The police had positive testimony that the two prisoners had been living for the past eighteen months or so at an address in Kentish-town, and during the whole of that time no child had ever been with I.hem. When they were arrested there was found at their'places three tin boxes full of baby clothing, the clothing of tho different babies being all mixed up together. There was also found a book which would play a most important part in this inquiry, because it purported to be a memorandum book containing the names and addresses of over one hundred women. Some of them might be, and probably were, the names and addresses adopted by these people for purposes of this fraud, but it was equally obvious many of them were the names and addresses of the persons from whom children had been obtained in this way. This had been a wholesale system, which had been pursued by these persons for a considerable time past. The police took up a paper and picked two advertisements out haphazard. They had different names and addresses, bub the extent of the fraud was indicated by the fact that both those advertisements, picked out thus indiscriminately, emanated from the prisoners ; and the woman, upon being interviewed, offered to hand the children over without the slightest inquiry as to what was to become of them. In the case of a child of a Miss Colbatch, which had been adopted by a Mrs. Healing, the wife of a ship's labourer at the Victoria Docks, the husband up to this moment was under the impression that ho was the father. He (Mr. Av t ory) was sorry to disappoint Mr. Healing* bub it was necessary for the purposes of this case. Without any evidence being taken an adjournment took place,