WHOSE CHILD?

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1061, 27 August 1930, Page 9

WHOSE CHILD?

DISPUTE OVER INFANT BECOMES MYSTERY “REAL” MOTHER REPENTS LONDON, Monday. The kidnapping of a month-old child named Leslie Bailey has occupied much space in London newspapers since Friday, August 8. On the afternoon of that day 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 his 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 wlio were called in to see the baby in bed with Mrs. Pither swore that it was her child. WOMAN DISAPPEARS 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 today by a statement published in the “Daily Telegraph” to the effect that Mrs. Pither has 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. It is understood that the next chapter in the extraordinary affair will be centred in the courts because Mrs. Pither is alleged to have been guilty of false registration of birth.