ALL FOR A WOMAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 9, 11 January 1934, Page 8

ALL FOR A WOMAN.

PAWNED HIS TEETH. LABOURER IN COURT. THEFT CHARGE DISMISSED. Some men will do almost anything if it is for a woman. Leo Augustus South, aged 44, labourer, when he appeared in the Police Court this morning, said that besides giving a woman £15 he had pawned his suit and his false teeth for her! South was charged with stealing a handbag worth 6/0 and 8/6 in money, and with being drunk in Hobson Street yesterday. Represented by Mr. K. C. Aekins. lie admitted that he was drunk, but denied the theft charge. " Jiu-jitsu Stuff." Aileen Marmont said she was : employed as housekeeper for a man I named Crane. At 6.15 last evening ! accused and another man entered Crane's house. Witness said she was lying down as she was ill. "South demanded to know where my purse was and then he put over the jiu-jitsu stuff on me and took 'my handbag," she said. "He took the ba'g, which contained 12/." She said she used to know South, but not lately. Mr. Aekins: Has he been spending alot of money on you this last four weeks? —No. Did lie pawn his things to get money to spend upon you?—No, not on me. He pawned things for himself. The Magistrate, Mr. Wyvern Wilson: How do you know that he pawned articles? —Well, I was with him and waited outside the shop. (Laughter.) Counsel: Do you deny that he asked you for the pawn tickets, so that he could get his suit and false teeth out of pawn, and you would not give them to him ?—Yes, I do. Witness admitted she had a number of previous convictions, and had been in prison. Richard Crane, waterside worker, said Marmont was employed by him as housekeeper. Last evening. South and another man rushed into his house by the back door, which was open. They refused to leave when he told them to go. Later he heard Marmont scream, and he next saw her leave the bedroom | with her hair "all pulled out." South remarked that he was "going to clean the house up." Witness then went for the police. Cross-examined by Mr. Aekins, Crane admitted he and Marmont had been living as man and wife, but said she was "his housekeeper. He gave her a few shillings and her keep. She wanted to stay at his house until she got a job in the* country. Mr. Aekins told the magistrate that South merely wanted the purse to get bis pawn tickets and retrieve his property. " I submit that there is no evidence disclosing theft," he said. "Is your Worship prepared to dismiss the matter at this stage?" "A Better Story." Mr. Wilson: The story is a good one until a better one is told. (Laughter.) South; who wore a shirt with the sleeves rolled up, revealing a tattooed arm, entered the witness box. He said Marmont and he had been living together for four weoks, and that he had spent £15 on her. "I even pawncd my suit and false teeth to get money to spend on her, and all I wanted the purse for was to get the pawn tickets," he said. " There was never any intention to steal." Detective-Sergeant McHugh: ♦ Why did you rush in and take this woman's purse when she was lying down on the bed?— There is no bed there for her to sleep oik She was standing up in the kitchen when I went in. " The story told by accused is quite as likely as those told by the lady and her paramour," said the magistrate in dismissing the theft charge. South was 1 fined 5/ for drunkenness. " Now that the theft charge is dis- ' missed, may South have the 8/0 found on him when arrested?" asked counsel. The magistrate replied in the aflirma- • tive.