ESCAPE FROM BORSTAL

Chronicle (Levin), 3 April 1946, Page 4

ESCAPE FROM BORSTAL

GIRL WHO POSED AS POLISH - REFUGEE By Telegrayh — Press Association CHRISTCHURCH, April z. ' A girl who recently posed in Ohrisr. church as a Polish refugee was sen tenced- in the Magistrate's Court on a eharge that she escaped from the Aro> hata Borstal Institute- at Wellington "on March 31. She was Olive Constancc Bryce, alias MariaEve Stephanies, alia.. Eatrina Schososkige, ta' domestic, ag'oo 21 years. Bryce pleaded guilty, aiid was" sentenced to six months' Borsta. detention after the expiry 'of the term she is alrgady serving. Snb-Inspector G. P. Payne /said HiaBryce took the part of a Polish refuge. when she came to Christchurch'' afte, her escape from Borstal.'. She was 'as sisted by some eharitable. institution: and iniposed on them.- _ ' Bryce 's stoi'y waS that her parents had been murdered by the;Germans' dur ing the occupation of Poland," said Mr. Pavne. "She went so far as to shou

people the scars on her body she claim ed to have reeeived dhrough ill-treat ment in Germau concentration camps Later, according * to her story, she es caped to England and then came to New Zealand. The members of the poliet* identified her with photographs of the , escaped girl. Her imagination seenis ti have run away with her. She first canu under the notice of the police in vVel lington in 1943, and since then has been convicted of offences in Wellington anu Auckland. ' ' For Bryce-, Mr. J. E. Moloney said that the girl was waiting for a tram i n Christchurch when a woman standing beside lier turned to her with sonie remark about the wfeather. BrJree replied ".Ja. !' The woman then asked her whether sh'e was a foreigner. Bryce found herself in • an awkwatd positibn. said Mr. Moloney, aud-.kept up the mas querade. IHr. Moloney -added that Brvc.e had a fall from a liorse in 1943, as a result of which she had bee'n held in a mental institution for two months foi observation. ; ' • Imposing the sentence, Mr. H. P. Lawry, S.M., said that Bryce was noi charged with masciuerading.