A WOMAN who used electoral rolls to track down her son after 30 years, knowing only his Christian name, appeared in a landmark trial which started in Brisbane yesterday.

Lily Arthur, who is suing the State of Queensland for breaching its fiduciary duty as her guardian, told the Supreme Court that on February 15, 1967, just one month off turning 17 and pregnant to a man she planned to marry, she had been arrested and incarcerated in a girls' home.

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Margaret Wenham

02nov04

Ms Arthur told the court that on October 1 she had given birth to a son whom she was not allowed to see and was coerced into signing an adoption consent.

Ms Arthur, now 54, said she had been at home asleep in the flat she shared with her partner, Steve Benko, when two police officers woke her up, arrested her and took her to the Brisbane watchhouse.

There she spent the night in a cell and was made to appear before the Children's Court the following morning.

"I was terrified. I didn't know what was happening. I was physically sick," she said.

Ms Arthur said she was charged with being "in moral danger", placed in the care of the Department of Children's Services and taken to the Holy Cross Home at Wooloowin.

She said she had not been allowed to make contact with Mr Benko or her mother, who was living in Sydney.

On one occasion, Ms Arthur said, she had been called to an office by a nun where she signed a Consent to Marry form which had been signed by her mother and Mr Benko's father.

But she was never given a copy of the form and never knew what became of it.

Ms Arthur - nee McDonald - gave birth in the Royal Women's Hospital to her son, whom she named Shane Stefan McDonald.

She said she was not allowed to see the baby after he was born.

Mr Benko visited her and together they went to the nursery and tried unsuccessfully to see which baby was theirs through a glass wall.

Eight days after the birth she was visited by a Children's Services worker, a Ms J. Whalley, who threatened to have her incarcerated in the notorious Karrala House at Ipswich if she saw Mr Benko again.

Ms Arthur said she was told that if she signed the adoption consent form, her son would be looked after.

But, she said, she had not understood the concept of adoption.

Ms Arthur told the court about her life until 1991, when she wrote to the department after finding out adoption identity restriction laws were being relaxed.

She said she was devastated when the department said her son had lodged a contact objection, thwarting her attempts to locate him.

She was only able to find out his Christian name had been changed to Tim.

Ms Arthur said she had finally found him in 1998 after she, her husband and daughter had searched the electoral rolls, cross- checking them with school enrolment records.

The trial continues today.