SALE OF A BABY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 144, 20 June 1931, Page 12

SALE OF A BABY

BOUGHT FOR TWO SHILLINGS. . ALLEGED BATE FOR BEGGING ( Alleged to base been sold for 2s, an 18-month-old child was the centre of interest when Henry James Bedwell, and Alary Bedwell, of no fixed abode, were charged at Chichester, England, in April, with vausing unnecessary suf- | fering to the child. Prosecuting on behalf of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Air R. D. Bray stated that the man and woman went about the country pushing a perambulator containing a gramophone. The child, ho alleged, was used as bait for the purpose of begging. Arthur Bailey, a>i inspector, stated that the Bedwells told him they were locking after the child for a friend. Bedwell showed him a letter: ‘‘To Whom It May Concern, —I think Air : Bedwell is quite capable of taking care of my child, Gra«ee. There will be no exchange of money, and it. is for the good of the child.” Bedwell denied he had written tho letter. Superintendent Briket stated that the Bedwells were taken to the police station with the child. It was cola, and raining- at the time. They said they were intending to tramp to Worthing, a distance of about 21 miles and he arrested them because he thought such an act. would be cruel to the child. He had not been able to trace the child’s parents, but he discovered that it was true that. Bedwell had got the child from a man at Brighton, and that man was supposed to have bought the child for 2s. Bedwell stated that about two weeks previously he was at a lodging house ; at Guildford, when a man, who was a motor driver, asked him to look after , the child. The man said he had been trying to get work at Brighton, ana would take the (child back when he had found work. The Bedwells were sentenced to 28 days’ imprisonment, and deprived of the custody of the child. It was stated that they had been previously convicted at Lambeth for a similar offence with regard to their own daughter, who was taken from them.