DRUG HABIT VICTIM

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 195, 15 May 1936, Page 20

DRUG HABIT VICTIM

Woman Who Stole From Employer By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, May 14. Described by the police as a drug addict, Hazel Mary Carswell, aged 35, sat and trembled in the dock at Magistrate’s Court this morning when charged with stealing clothing and cutlery valued at £9, from a private home where she was employed as a nurse for an elderly male patient and, further, with procuring dangerous i drugs without authority. She pleaded guilty to all charges. Mr. Aekins said that accused acquired the drug habit years ago and had been unable to leave off. She was now in very bad health. Replying to Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M., counsel said accused had been an inmate of Pakatoa Island institution for two years and left there in February last. The magistrate said it was the wrong practice for chemists to accept orders for drugs over the telephone. The police said that accused was very frank. The stolen articles had been recovered from second-hand shops. On the theft charge accused was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. At counsel’s request sentence on the summary charges was postponed. The magistrate said that accused would receive proper treatment in prison.