Acquitted On Charge Of Stealing Purse

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30369, 19 February 1964, Page 13

Acquitted On Charge Of Stealing Purse

Arthur Murdock Mclver, aged 28, a freezing worker, was yesterday acquitted in •the Supreme Court on a charge of theft. Mclver w r as discharged by Mr Justice Macarthur. Mr C. M. Roper prosecuted, and Mr R. G. Blunt appeared for Mclver. Mclver was charged with the theft of a purse containing rings and money, to a total value of £37, from Joan Valerie Chidgey, on December 14. Mrs Chidgey said in evidence that she met Mclver in the Masonic Hotel on the afternoon of December 14, and they arranged to go to a party in the evening. On the way she gave the accused her purse, containing the rings and money, to mind for the evening, as she had no pockets. After the party she asked for the return of her purse, said the witness. The accused replied that he would return it when they got into the taxi She asked him for it again and he said that he would give it back to her if she would come into the bushes w’ith him, she said. She rang for a taxi, and when the taxi arrived the accused was standing by some trees near the telephone booth. He disappeared into the trees . when the taxi pulled up, and she rang the police, said the witness. “He seemed to be keeping the purse to try to make me come into the bushes with him,” said the witness to Mr Blunt.

Constable I. R. Whiting said that he searched near the telephone booth and found

the accused hiding in a hedge. The accused admitted that Mrs Chidgey gave him her purse for safe keeping, that he still had it, and that he was not going to give it back.

He searched the area but could not find the purse, and the accused refused to tell him where it was, said the witness. About an hour later he went back with the accused, who showed him where the purse was hidden, covered with leaves and with a brick placed on top. Mr Blunt called no evidence for the defence. He submitted to the jury that, for the accused to be found guilty, it must be established that lie intended to keep the purse and its contents for his own use.