SISTERS PRAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 205, 29 August 1936, Page 4 (Supplement)

SISTERS PRAY.

TWP RUINED SPINSTERS,

ROBBED OF £12,000,

Two spinster sisters, one aged 60, the other 70, knelt in prayer in a private chapel at Plympton St. Maurice (Devon). They gave thanks for the House of Rest that is now their home, for the friends -who came to their aid after a swindler had bled ■ them of all they possessed.

As they prayed, the man, Cuthbert Raymond Newton, aged 29, of Warberry Road, Torquay, faced judge and jury at Exeter Assizes, and heard the sentence of five years' penal servitude passed on him.

So the curtain came down on the only drama that has ruffled the lives of the Misses Henrietta and Evelyn Wrey —described to the Court as "two Victorian ladies"—once the owners of a large .and pleasant house at Fluder Hill, Kingskerswell, Devon.

Newton, then a vacuum-cleaner salesman, called at tlieir home in 1927. Smiling, smooth-tongued, pleasant, he gained their confidence. Soon he was "investing" their fortunes, totalling £12,000.

In fact, he was slowly robbing them of their all. They trusted him implicitly. Even after his arrest, when he had reduced them to penury, they believed in him. Lived on Stew. They scraped together tiie money to send him cigarettes. in gaol. Not long before, police had found them existing on stew made with benes and vegetables from their garden. Because there was no fuel, they wore overcoats to keep out j the cold.

Sheriff's officers were in the house. As they grew poorer so Newton grew richer. He lived on a lavish scale, once employed a chauffeur.

To meet his demands the sisters mortgaged their home, pawned their jewels. When it was clear that they liad no more, Newton vanished. He abandoned his own wife and family, ran away with another woman. He was caught at Eastbourne.

Meantime the Misses Wrey, daughters of a clergyman, members" of an old Devon family, too proud to ask help from friends, struggled on against coldj hunger and debts." Even then they believed in Newton.

Now friends have rallied round. Their illusions are shattered, but they face a future of peace, quiet and comparative contentment.