TELLER'S FALL

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 151, 23 December 1938, Page 16

TELLER'S FALL

STORY TOLD IN COURT

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, December 16.

A "split personality," described as an extremely rare complaint, was referred to by Dr. Eric Susman, a psychiatrist, in evidence at the Quarter Sessions here. Dr: Susman said that he had formed the theory, that Stanley Charles Strout, 34, teller, who pleaded guilty to the fraudulent conversion of £830 from the Commonwealth Savings Bank, had developed a "splitting of the personality," owing to severe anxiety and worry.

Strout, it was stated, had first taken money from the bank to pay a civil debt, and other sums which were afterwards taken were lost on the racecourse; According to his counsel, Mr. Sturt, each successive lapse was an attempt to raise money to cover Strout's previous lapse, and to make good to the bank all that he had taken from it. The £830 shortage charged against Strout, Mr. Sturt added, covered the period from September 6 to September 19, and there seemed to be no doubt that Strout, at that time, was sd numbed by anxiety and worry, which had beset him for the preceding six months, that he did not know what he was doing.

Dr. Susman said that the only psychological explanation he could give was that, in view of the previous excellent character of Strout, he had undergone a complete change in personality. Up till June, witness was satisfied, Strout knew if he was doing wrong, but after that,' through stress of anxiety and worry, Strout became desperate. Strout did such foolish things in such a clumsy way that it was possible to postulate that he was not really conscious of what he was doing. His previous good record and frank, open manner both supported the possibility of a complete change of personality. Other evidence was that Strout had had an excellent record of 18 years as a bank officer.

When Strout was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment he almost collapsed from his seat in the dock. A policeman hurried with a glass of water to Strout, who then buried his face in his hands, supported by the ledge of the dock, and wept unrestrainedly.