CHURCH MONEY STOLEN

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 6, 6 July 1940, Page 7

CHURCH MONEY STOLEN

After money, subscribed by parishioners for the purchase of coal for needy families, had been missed for some time from boxes in St. Mary of the Angels, Boulcott Street, Detective N. J. McPhee concealed himself in the church, with the result that he saw Gordon Elliott Brown, a salesman, aged 26, enter the building and take money from the two boxes, stated the police, when Brown appeared before Mr. W. F. Stilwell, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court yesterday, and pleaded guilty to the theft of sums of money totalling 15s. Detective-Sergeant P. Doyle, who prosecuted, referred to the accused's physical and mental condition, and said that it was obvious he needed strict supervision of some kind. Counsel for the accused, Mr. J. A. Scott, said that he would concede that the theft was, in the circumstances, a mean one, but he submitted that the accused could not be regarded as normal. He addressed the Court at some length on this aspect of the case. After hearing counsel and perusing a medical report, the Magistrate admitted Brown to probation for 18 months, subject to his living in a locality and entering into work approved by the probation officer, and subject to his subjecting himself to such medical and mental observation as called upon by the probation officer.