THE GIRL WAS GONE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13193, 2 June 1906, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE GIRL WAS GONE.

AGED GRANDFATHER ACCUSED .01*

ABDUCTION. Where is Winifred Wyatt? This is the mystery that the police and the Marylebone Board of Guardians are trying to solve—a mystery deepened by the .suggestion of a contest of rival creeds. Winifred Wyatt is a, girl of 16. and hoi* grandfather, a greyhaired man of 72, in eleribl attire, sat in the dock at Maylebone, to answer a charge of abducting her from the control of the guardians. He is the man, says the prosecution. who holds the key to the mystery. " It is an amazing and tangled story," said Mr. Bodkin, who prosecuted. Defendant was described as Dennis 0 Hallorah. of no occupation, residing at Clcek Lodge, Pallastown. Kinsale. Ireland. Tracing the history of the case, Mr. Bodkin said that in December last the court determined that the present defendant was not a proper person to have the guardianship of the. gill, and the Marylebone Guardians constituted themselves the parent of the child until she was 18. For the purpose of completing her education as a domestic servant the guardians placed her in a situation with a Mr. and Mrs. Hall, residing at Finchlev. About two months after the court had declared against defendant he commenced writing letters to the girl, and was also seen hanging about the house where she was employed. In the end he induced and assisted her to leave the situation, and on February 26 spirited her away to Ireland. For some time, the guardians had no idea where she was, but they determined, in view of the finding of the High Court, to regain their temporal control over her. O'Halloran, continued counsel, had entirely disentitled himself to the control of any person, for what he did was this. He lirst- took a pub-lic-house near Cork, and by various pretensions and inducements lie got the principal of the Inebriate* Home, to which his daughter— mother of the girl Winifred— had been sent, to let her out of the home, on the understanding that she. was going to a boardinghouse. Instead he took her straight into the public-house with the result that she was found not long afterwards on the quay side at Kir.sale drunk, she having apparently been turned out from the public-house to make her way back to London as best she could. In these circumstances, therefore, the guardians obtained a warrant for defendant's arrest, for the alleged abduction, but instead of executing it at oncc they sent a special message to prisoner asking him to come and see them. His answer was Cannot come." Accordingly Detective-sergeant Brown proceeded to Ireland, accompanied by Mr. W. Roberts (relieving officer) and Mrs. Roberts, with the object of regaining possession and control of the girl. They found her living in the house of prisoner and his wife, and the girl and prisoner both expressed their' willingness to come to London. As it was then too late to embark that day. went on counsel, the party put up for the night at the Sea View Hotel, Kinsale, the girl being in the charge of Mrs. Roberts. About, one o'clock in the morning an Irish solicitor and a Roman Catholic priest entered the bedroom occupied by Detective Brown. Being ordered out they went to the bedroom of Mrs. Roberts. Within a few minutes the girl Winifred was outside the hotel and had vanished. Where she was now they did not know, but there was no doubt that, in spile of what defendant said as to having washed his hands of her, he knew pretty well where she was to be found. When he •was arrested lie said: " I admit that I took the girl from Finchley. I was advised to do so by the priest and also by.my solicitor." Counsel wished to impress upon accused that the guardians were even now willing to . afford him and those acting with him an escape from this determined attempt to defy the law. So far as the temporal welfare of the girl was* concerned, the guardians were determined to maintain their responsibility until she was IS, but ; AS TO /'HER spiritual WELFARE . it was immaterial to them in what creed she was brought up, and they had not the smallest objection to her receiving a proper education as a Roman .Catholic if she and her relatives desired it. Under those circumstances he proposed to ask for a remand in order to give O'Halloran an opportunity of bringing the girl to the court and handing her over to the guardians. Defendant, added Mr. Bodkin, was. a 'pensioner from the Metropolitan Police, living in a small house near Cork, and it was obvious he could not have secured the services of the counsel and solicitor of high standing employed in the proceedings instituted to obtain the possession of his granddaughter without help. "He was, therefore, more or less under the control of others; but there was little doubt that he could, if lie wished, produce the girl. Detective-Sergeant Brown proved the arrest of the prisoner, and bore out the statement of counsel. The solicitor, lie said, who entered his bedroom at one a.m. was a Mr. Haggarty, and the priest, the Rev. Father O'Leary, both of Ivinsale. After the girl had disappeared prisoner said : — The girl is now out of my charge. She is somewhere in the charge of other people." In the course of a long discussion which took place between counsel and the magistrate, Mr. Bodkin explained that the father of the child who had disappeared was regarded as a Protestant and tt!i> mother, although brought up a Roman Catholic for some time, developed Protestant principles, and in an affidavit described herself as a Protestant. There was no doubt now that the girl in nuestion desired to be brought up in the Roman Catholic faith. O'Halloran was remanded, and bail in £10 was accepted.