Author Slams Media Beat-Up

Author Slams Media Beat-Up

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“The media’s latest attempt to demonise Minnie Dean ‘the Winton baby farmer’ through association with sex offender Peter Jordan (Stuff, 19 February), is a shallow and ill-considered beat-up,” author Lynley Hood said today.

“These are the facts,” Dr Hood said. “In October 1890, Cecil Guilford, a brother of Peter Jordan’s maternal grandfather, was passed into the care of Minnie Dean with a payment of 30 pounds. Though she received no further payment for him, Cecil was still in Mrs Dean’s care when she was arrested in May 1895.

“There is every reason to believe that Peter Jordan’s relative was well-cared for, well-nourished and well-loved by Mrs Dean. The media’s attempt to smear her by association is scurrilous and absurd.

“Following Mrs Dean’s arrest, the Otago Witness reported: The children seemed quite happy and contented. They do not appear to be very well provided with clothing but were strong and healthy looking, and seemed to have been well fed ... Those who have come a good deal in contact with Mrs Dean say that she always appeared to have an affectionate regard for the children in her care ... All the children who were in her care at the time of her arrest are said to be well mannered, and show signs of having some religious training.

“While awaiting the gallows, Mrs Dean wrote: My bodily and spiritual welfare have been well cared for, but the one yearning wish of my heart has to remain ungratified, I have been refused to be let see the children.

The thought and hope of being able to see them only once has sustained me in all my bitter trouble. And surely I have been punished enough without inflicting the worst of all troubles on me. What is to become of them now? Who will love and care for them as I have done? Oh it is cruel to have to go the the grave with the only ray of comfort denied me, a fond last look at the faces of my little ones.” On 12 August 1895, Williamina Dean became the only woman hanged for murder in New Zealand. Her crime was infanticide. Her conviction remains controversial to this day.

Cecil Guilford died in France in 1918 during the Battle of the Somme.

Dr Lynley Hood is the author of Minnie Dean: Her Life and Crimes, Penguin, 1994.

ENDS

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