RECTOR'S WIFE A KLEPTOMANIAC.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 290, 4 December 1920, Page 19

RECTOR'S WIFE A KLEPTOMANIAC.

I j The wife of a city clergyman was at the : | Manchester City sessions bound over for . j twelve mouths on two -charges of shopi > lifting, a mental specialist describing the ? case as a genuine case of kleptomania. Accused was Kdith Davies, fiO, wife nf : the Key. Benjamin Davies, rector of St. i Thomas*. Chcetliam Hill, Manchester, and the articles stolen included silk, goloshes, soup, ami toothbrushes. Accused at Hint pleaded not guilty, but after the case had proceeded for a time the | Recorder (Mr. A. .1. Ashton, „.C.) asked If • j she were lit to plead. I Mr. T. Kustham, defending, after speak- ; ■ ing (o his client, said she now wished to ; plead guilty. I Tho Key. B. Davies, speaking with feel- ■ ing, said they were married in ISO 7. At times his wife was not quite rational, but appeared mentally unbalanced. She had 1 been fined for shoplifting in 1010, and in 1011 received a sentence of three months in the second division for a similar offence. She was again charged with shoplifting in j 131-, nnd afier evidence bail been given by two doctors she was bound over. Dr. Judson Bury, mental specialist. Manchester, snld he examined accused in 1912 and again in July last. He was of opinion j that this was a genuine case of klepto- | mania. He would not s.-iy that accused was | insane. Kleptomania was one of the manl- ; testations of uncontrollable impulses which j might alTect people.

Mr. Eastham: Would a person affected by one of those uncontrollable Impulses know she was doing wrong? Witness: She might, but it is difficult to say. Another manifestation nf this kind Is that of a man who will go downstairs twenty time* in a night to lock his front door. He knows it is absurd, but he cannot resist going. In many cases a person might try to resist, but cannot do so. Witness said between these attacks accused was quite normal, and as eight years had elapsed since the last case he was hopeful she would be completely cured in time.