SENSATIONAL ABDUCTION CASE.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 4 October 1901, Page 3

SENSATIONAL ABDUCTION CASE.

£435 Damages Awarded.

(PBB PBEBS ASSOCIATION.)

Wanganui, This}, Day. A sensational abduction case began in in the Supremo Court this morning Joseph Soler claiming £SOO damages from Mrs Tucker his divorced wife, Mr Tucker, of Maaterton, and Mr and Mrs Coburn, and Mr and Mrs Humphries, T. Hodgson and J. Dalgleish. Dr. Finlay appeared for the plaintiff and Pownall, Barnicoat and Hawkins defendants. In opening the case Findlay said it was unparalled in the history of the Colony, Nearly three years on December 2nd, 1898, a lad left the father’s house at Wanganui to school, and was asked to go to Coburn's house where he was dressed in girl's olotfaes and bonnet, and taken to Mastertoa where he stayed one night with his mother Mrs Tucker, who told him that in future his name would be Fred Davis. Next morning be was taken to Humphrey’s station at Featberaton and remained there a month, still in girl’s clothes. He was then taken to Wellington, thenco to Christchurch, and at Papanui lived in Hodgson's house for two years and three months. Afterwards he was sent to Invercargill, and then to a farm of Dalgleish, where he was found by the Police. Tucker had denied any knowledge of the boy, but afterwards ■aid he was well cared for in Australia. Plaintiff claimed to recover £SOO dam ages for defendants depriving and conspiring to deprive him of his son Raphail Soler by abduction or enticing him away from plaintiff's house at Wanganui and thereafter conspiring to conceal his whereabouts and wrongfully secretly harboring him from the plaintiff for a period of over two years and eight months. Further, that he, plaintiff had throughout that period been put to great expense in searching for the child and in paying legal and other expenses to discover the whereabouts of the child and had otherwise suffered great mental anguish and inconvenience and had lost for the said period the child’s service and society.

Dr Findlay said the abduction is alleged to have been engineered by Mrs Tucker (prior to the divorce of Mrs Soler the boy’s mother) for purposes of revenge.

The defence was that Mrs Tucker was under the impression that no order of the Court had been made whereby it was unlawful for her to. take the child. The case created groat interest, the courthouse being crowded all day, In addressing the jury Sir Bobert Stout said a case of the sort had never been tried in the colony previously, and in the course of his remarks he said the public should know that if any person took away a child under fourteen years of age out of possession of its parent or guardian, such

person was liable to a very serious punishment up to seven years' imprisonment with hard labour.

The jury awarded £2OO damages against Mr and Mrs Tucker; £IOO against Mr and Mrs Humphreys; £IOO against Hodgson; £3O against Mr and Mrs Coburn and £5 against DAlgleish.