DISCOVERY OF THE WRONG BABY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2740, 19 February 1910, Page 4 (Supplement)

DISCOVERY OF THE WRONG BABY.

RIGHT BABY MISSING. An amazing story of hoAV the Avrong baby was kidnapped by mistake Avas told at the West Ham Police Court recently, Avhen Frederick Beeton Avas charged Avith unlaAvfully taking the scA'cn-months-old baby Phoebe Lock from her parents at Canning Toavii. This comedy of the wrong baby, Avhich bewildered the Court, Avas iolloAved by an even stranger affair- —the mystery of the Avliereabouts of tho right baby. Two infants-in-arms, as alike as tAA'o peas, are im-oNed in this Canning toAvn romance, and one of them is still missing amongst a niazo of East End babies.

Frederick Beeton, “who took the Avrong baby aAvay, is a boyish-looking married man of tAventy-four. He is a chief clerk in the goods department of the Great Northern Raihvay, and lives in the “Garden City” at LetchAvorth.

How he came to make the mistake of taking Phoebe Lock from her mailcart in Barking Road Avas explained by himself and a young woman. Miss Rose Young, of Peach Road, “Garden City,” avlio AA r ore a fashionable costume and an astrakan toque, said that Beeton was the father of her child, Avhich aaus born on July 20th last.

“He took my baby aAvay avlicii slie Avas two months old,” she stated in a low voice. “Ho said his brother Avould adopt it. 1 consented to this arrangement, but I aftenvards said I AA'ished to see the child again. I Avas naturally anxious.”

“Did you threaten to slioav him up if ho did not bring your baby back?” the magistrate’s clerk asked, but Miss Young shook her head. “On Tuesday night,” she continued, “he brought a baby heme and placed it in my arms. I said: ‘This baby is not mine.’ ”

“Was his wife bvith him at tho timer” tlio clerk enquired. “Yes,” Avas the. reply. Did she do most of the talking and say the baby was yours?—Yes. Did she not compare the baby’s looks Avith that of Beeton? —Slio said, “The baby looks like him.” What did you say to that?—l was in doubt as to tho child, but I said I Avould keep it until Christmas to see.

“I saw Beeton on Sunday afternoon,” Miss Young stated.. “He then told me, ‘Tho baby I brought you is being advertised for. It is the Avrong baby.’ ” “What did you say?” “Nothing. He told me I should have to go back to London Avith it.” “You had no idea it Avas stolen?” — “Oh, no,” Miss Young replied, sadly.

When Beeton Avas asked if he had any questions t© ask he leaned across the rail and said: “On Wednesday last did you not' Avasli it and say it Avas such a pretty little tiling, and looked like its father?”

“Yes,” Miss Young admitted. “It did look like you then.” “Did you not remark about the wrinkles at the bottom of its mouth Avlien it smiled?”

“Yes, it did look like you then,” Miss Young AA’liispered. “It had features like, yours.” She explained that she brought the baby up from LotcliAvorth to King’s Cross, and met Beeton, A\dio put her in_ to a taxicab and told the driver to take them both to York Street, Canning Toavii.

Beeton made the following statement when he was arrested:— When on my holidays in August I made enquiries Avbere to get a little girl adopted. In a house, ill Euston Road, I. met a strange woman and tivo strange men and spoko to thorn of my desire. They mentioned' a- Mrs. Jeffreys, avlio lived in Canning Town. I asked them to find her, and they returned in about two hours with a tall woman, ivhom they introduced as Mrs. Jeffries.

On September 10th site wrote a. letter asking me to meet her. I have destroyed' that letter. There- was no address on it. I met her. and handed over the child. She gave her address as Canning Town, Later I went to Canning Town under the impression that 1 should bo able to discover the whereabouts of the child. I spoke to the little girl Dorothy Lock, who was wheeling a baby. She mentioned' her gralrfi'mother, and I was under the impres-

sion that she was Mrs. Jeffries. Dorothy Lock, the twelve-year-old sister, told the Court how recently she met Becton in Barking Road. He. “made a 'fuss” over the baby and bought her a doll, which he laid on the mail-cart.

In the afternoon she met him again, when he gave.her sixpence to buy nuts and apples, and ran off with the baby, wrapped in a travelling rug which he carried.

The- police: asked for a remand to find the right baby, saying that Bcoton was a respectable man in a good position. Mr. Gillespie, the magistrate, accordingly remanded Beeton for a week, granting him bail in one surety of £4O.