ALLEGED KIDNAPPING.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1388, 14 March 1912, Page 2

ALLEGED KIDNAPPING.

AN AUCKLAND CASE. ' TWO MEN COMMITTED FOR TRIAL. (Dy Tclecraph-Press Association.! Auckland, March 13. | A little girl, with closely cropped hair, j was placed in a chair in the Police Court beime 11 r. IS. C. Cutten, S.M., this morning, while her mother wns jtiviiig cviileiicc against her father and an alleged accuiniiiicu uiion a charge of kidnapping. The defendants were Siren Marcus Mikklcson ar.it ifichanl James. They were clmrjjed with having on I'cbruarv 22 attempted lu iiepnve Itanmih Beatrice Caroline. j\i m > of her child, Ulaclys i\ipp, aged 8, of winch she hail legal etishmv. Mr. Sinj-er appealed lor defendant Jlikkleson and .mi-, ltackett for dvlemtunt ' James. Chief-Detective Marsack' said that, as James was alleged to have assisted in carrying the child oIT he was being charged as mi accomplice. The mother of the little girl deposed that (ho latter was the ehiUl of herH'if and defendant, Mikklssun. They wore married in South lirisbane in Sep'tcmbr, 1902. A couple of weeks Inter he went to Sydney hikl shortly alter lelt for America from whence he returned in 1003. Almost immediately he went to South Africa, asking witness to go too, but she was not in a fit condition to travel. Jje sent her o. little money for the, first few months, but aiter the "child was born sho had to support herself. Defendant, wrote asking her to go out to .South Africa, but she did not do so because his letters were Always unfriendly. Witness came over to Now Zealand and procured a divorce while in Wellington on March 11 of last year. The Supreme Court judgment gave her custody of the child. She and the latter eaimi to Auckland before last Christmas. Witness ■ was not aware that defendant llikkleson had come to Auckland. She had not seen him since January, 11)10, when he went Ip her house in Wellington with a solicitor and tried to get custody of the child. Violet Maud Henderson, aged 10, told , the Court, how a man had come behind Gladys Kipp, as the two were going to Cirufton lioad School from their homes one morning, and carried her away. They both cried, and, witness' tried to "hold oil to Gladys, but she wns put into ft trap and driven away with two men. Gladys Kipp, the litllo girl alleged to have been kidnapped, said thai while walking along the footpath on the way to school on the morning in question with the former witness she had stopped to take some books out of her school-bag, when defendant Mikklcson enmo behind her and picked her ■ up. She screamed, but he put her in a cart and drove her away with the. other defendant around Mount, Eden. When some distance out, the former took her from the trap and sat down with her on the roadside for u long time, while the trap went away, and came back again. Ho then showed her a new dress and ha,t, which he said were for her to wear. She was then driven a long way to a house, where she stayed for several days. Defendant Jlikklesen cut off her long hair, and put it in a paper bag, and on the second day ho put boy's clothes on , her, so that "no one would know her." He to|d her that her mother starved her, which was not true. She slept in the same bed as he, except one night, when she was taken by two men to sleep in the bush, so that no one would find her. • Leah Miller, resident of Mount Eden, deposed to having witnessed the carrying off of the child, mid to seeing the defend- ■ tint, Mikkleson, place his hands over her mouth. The defendant James afterwards came to her, and said, "Hold your tongue ! to-night or 1 will choke yon." When • being cross-examined by Mr. Hackett wil--1 ness became excited, and her husband, I from his scat in the Court, rose with ! arms waving in the direction of counsel, ; and protested against the manner in ' which ho was questioning his wife. ' Both defendants were-cpmniiltcd for ; trial. '