Baby kidnapped from Bassett Green home in Southampton, 1956

Calmly pushing open the front gate as her oblivious mother read a book just a few yards away, nomadic Kathleen Riley picked up the slumbering infant from his pram and walked off purely to attract the attention of a lorry driver for a lift.

"I thought I would have more chance of a hitchhike by carrying a baby," the young nanny explained.

"I did not intend any harm to the baby. I have worked in an orthopaedic hospital looking after young children and babies.

"I wanted to get to Coventry because I am worried about my father's health. I have not seen him for four or five years and I don't know whether he is alive and living.

"When I got to Coventry, I intended to hand over the baby to the police."

The disappearance of ten-weeks-old Adrian Gower from his Bassett Green Road home sparked a nationwide hunt in the summer of 1956 with the police conducting a round of inquiries at cafes, hotels and adoption centres in the hope of tracing a person with a special interest in babies.

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Locally, they also combed the woods leading from Bassett to North Stoneham as well as The Common, the Sports Centre and parks amid increasing fears the abductor might have dumped Adrian to avoid detection.

A special watch was kept at the mainline railway station and vehicles going in and out of the town were checked.

The baby's mother, 28-year-old Audrey whose husband John worked as an insurance inspector, had told them how she had put him to sleep in his pram after his 2pm feed.

She checked on him 40 minutes later and returned to read a book in the drawing room which overlooked their garden. She later heard Adrian cry but took no notice of it as he stopped almost immediately.

Mr and Mrs Gower photogarpahed with their other son, three-year-old Graham, outside thier Bassett Green home. (Image: Echo)

At 3.10pm she went out again and to her horror found him missing. The pram was empty as were the contents - the white, blue fringed blanket wrapped around him. Remarkably composed, she told the Echo: "As I sat in the drawing room reading a book, I could almost look out onto the pram but I had no reason to do so."

Her main concern was how Adrian, a breastfed baby with blue eyes, ginger hair and a cheerful disposition, would get his food: "I hope whoever has taken him will be kind."

A neighbour dialled 999 and police stationed a radio van outside the house to keep the parents informed of the search's progress. Following a hastily convened press conference, they gained a major lead.

Two GPO workers reported they had seen a woman in red carrying a baby away from the scene, and a woman came forward to say she had seen the suspect near Chilworth's crossroads. Her sighting was confirmed by a petrol pump attendant at a nearby service station who saw a woman, who had a white blanket or shawl over her shoulder and carrying a baby in one arm, walking towards Winchester.

As police feared she might have been given a lift out of the town, they widened their hunt throughout the county, concentrating on army married quarters and the Polish resettlement camp at Chandlers Ford.

The publicity resulted in Essex long-distance driver contacting London police to say he had picked up a woman and baby answering to their description as it was pouring with rain and the sight of the youngster encouraged him to stop and offer assistance. She asked to be taken to Newbury where she claimed her husband was stationed with the American Air Force but they had only reached Micheldever when she suddenly wanted to be dropped off at the roadside. Spurning his offer of a lift to the nearest bus station, she insisted she could manage and he drove on.

Ultimately, it was the astuteness of a London police officer that led to Riley's arrest and Adrian's safe recovery. On duty at crossroads in the East End, Pc Pedley was suspicious of the demeanour of a passenger in a lorry. The woman looked embarrassed when he looked at her and she stared back through the driving mirror. The vehicle was driven a short distance down the road where it again stopped and opening the nearside door, the constable saw the woman with a baby on her lap.

"Is this baby yours?" he asked.

"Yes," she unconvincingly replied. "It belongs to me."

Baby Adrian Gower. (Image: Echo)
 

But the officer recognised Adrian's description and took them to the nearby police station where she confessed, confirming she had taken him from his pram purely to help gain lifts in lorries.

Adrian's fearful parents were contacted and given the reassuring news he was safe, travelled to the police station to be reunited. An hour later, they emerged smiling broadly, his beaming mother saying: "What he needs now is a long, long sleep in his own cot safe back in his own home. And that's where I am going to take him."

The following day, June 9, 1956, Bristol-born Riley, 19, appeared before Southampton magistrates, charged with kidnap. Wearing a bright red skirt, light-coloured shoes, a grey-loose fitting jacket with a dark collar over a yellow pullover, the petite teenager had her hair swept untidily back from her forehead as she stood with her hands clasped behind her back and confirmed her name with a faint 'Yes.'

Detailing her arrest, Inspector Edward Booth revealed Riley had no settled address and applied for a remand in custody. Asked by the Deputy Clerk to the Justices Laurence Allen if she had anything to say, she replied 'No' and was taken to Hollway Prison.

Riley appeared at the town's Quarter Session on July 18 when she pleaded guilty in front of a crowded courtroom. Prosecutor Michael Polson confirmed the series of events that led her to the dock and though Adrian had not suffered any lingering affects, the ordeal had left its mark on his mother who had been so badly shocked by the ordeal she was unable to feed him for some time.

"Fortunately, when the baby was recovered 24 hours later after it had first disappeared, he was found to be unharmed. It was dirty and scruffy but appeared in normal health."

In mitigation, John Jenkins accepted Riley had a disreputable record. "From the time her father had remarried after the death of her mother, she has been in and out of institutions, hostels and prisons. She has a feeling of insecurity but following the publicity given to this case, a brother, a corporal in the RASC and who is married, has offered to give her a home."

But the judge, Recorder Ewen Montagu QC, was unsympathetic.

Scathing in his remarks, he told Riley: "The offence you committed was one of the most callous it has ever been my lot to deal with. The suffering and horror you must have caused were quite appalling. You did it callously, not from motives of affection for this child but so you could get a lift to assist you in the wanderings around the country in which you were indulging at that time."

Passing sentence, he hoped her brother would indeed give her a home after she had undergone Borstal training which was "essential" for her.

As she left the dock, the judge said Pc Pedley should be commended for his excellent work which might have saved the child from irreparable injury.