DISPUTE OVER BABY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 360, 3 September 1930, Page 7

DISPUTE OVER BABY

MRS EITHER ARRESTED HIDING AT SOUTHEND LONDON, Sept. 1. Mrs Pither, for whom the police have been searching in connection with a dispute over a baby, was arrested at Southend, where she has been hiding for a fortnight. The kidnapping of a month-old child named Leslie Bailey occupied much space in London newspapers last month. On the afternoon of August 8 Mrs Violet Pither, wife of a railway porter, informed the police that her baby had been kidnapped from a perambulator in a crowd in Edgware Road. Immediately there was a hue and cry. The search extended throughout London, and on August 12 the child was found in bed with its real mother, Mrs Bailey, West Ham. When Leslie was a

fortnight old the mother advertised for a foster-mother. Mrs Pither answered and took over her charge. Then Mrs Bailey repented and obtained the return of the baby from Mrs Pither. Meanwhile Mrs Pither had registered it as her own. Her husband swore it was hers. The neighbours who were called in to see the baby in bed with Mrs Pither swore it was her child. Next came the disappearance of Mrs Pither, for whom the police searched extensively. The husband declared that he was heartbroken. Interest in the case was revived on August 25 by a statement published in the Daily Telegraph to the effect that Mrs Pither had been located in a house on the outskirts of London. Scotland Yard detectives had not ceased to search for her since she was reported missing.