Chance discovery brings little girl back to her mum

The body politic...

A remarkable story of chance revolving around a child custody dispute.

The drama began when a mother, Dolly Lawley Gibbs, was granted sole care of her six-year-old daughter, Celia.

Celia’s father, Sydney David Benabu, took the child from her home on an arranged trip to Eastbourne and never returned.

Nothing was heard from either for many months and it seems both Benabu and little Celia had vanished.

That was until a woman recognised a photograph of Celia as a little girl she had met in New York.

Police were quickly dispatched to the US and Sydney was brought back to the UK on child abduction charges. The article states: “The father, a pathetic figure in the dock, was arrested on the White Star liner Adriatic.

“The baby girl remained in a room near the court clutching two large dolls.”

Happily, the child was reunited with her mother and The Sunday Post describes the lucky break as “one of the most remarkable romances of the 20th Century. Truth becomes stranger and seems more fantastic than fiction.” An appalling attempt at vote rigging was stopped by officers in Glasgow in 1922.

Police were on alert after a man voted in the name of dead soldier in the Bridgeton area during a previous election.

The story states: “At about half-past seven ‘the voter’ gave the name and address of the dead soldier, and proceeded into the polling booth.”

Just then officers walked into the room and arrested him.