THRASHED BY ACTRESS.

Evening Star, Issue 17647, 28 April 1921, Page 7

THRASHED BY ACTRESS.

SCENE IN PICCADILLY. BATTENING ROGUE PUNISHED. How a young actwss thrashed a man it. Piccadilly was told at Old Bailey du:v.-,-,r tho trial of James Arthur Newton Pickc:te (forty-eight!, a broker. lie was - with obtaining money by false p;. u---from Miss Phyllis Carter, an actecs,-, Northumberland Mansions. Baker sir; s and tho sum involved was staled £1,154-. Pickering pleaded not guilty. (Mr Roland Oliver, prosecuting, rop .- that Miss Carter gave Pickering £-. - invest in the part-purchase of a lor;, flats in Jermyn street. The flats w ■■ bought, declared Mr Oliver, and the m . was spent by Pickering.. Miss Carter gave evidence that some re after handing Pickering tho money ■ met Mm in Piccadilly outride the Jurnm Constitutional Club. He failed to give .1 satisfactory explanation of what had happened to the money, and she became angry, called him a thief and a cad, and thrashed him. Ho huried away, and sho took out a ■warrant for hie arrest. Later she saw accused in a restaurant, and ho then suggested that the money was a loan, and that she could not touch him. Ho jumped into a taxicab, and sho followed iu another one., overtaking him at Victoria station, where she gave him into custody. Pickering, she added, had been living as a man of means, and represented that ho made a fortune in India.

Accused, a grey-haired man, subsequently wont into the box. He had been an exchange broker for twenty years, chiefly in Singapore. Between 1900 and 1308 he made £IO,OOO, but lost it in. an engineering concern. Ho returned- to his broking, and during 1909 and 1910 made £50,000. That amount ho lost iu investing in rubber shares. In 1315-16 he served as a captain in tho remount department. He came to London, and in 1919 made a profit of between £1,300 and £1,400 by dealing in leases of flats. At Christmas of that year lie met Miss Carter at an hotel in Bournemouth. Sho was introduced to him by a Captain Wilkinson as his wife, and they danced together. Later she told Him that she was not Mrs Wilkinson, and that her proper name was Phyllis Desmond. On his return to London he called at her fiat in Baker street, and they wont to lunch together. She informed Mm that Captain Wilkinson was going to Siam, and she hoped that they would bo able to meet frequently. Witness was short, of money at that time, and borrowed £35 from her, for which be gave her a post-dated cheque for £45. That cheque was met. It was untrue that be told Mis? Carter ho was a rich man, and that ho was expecting a supply of money from' India, Defendant agreed l that he received £1,300 from Miss Carter, but declared that it was all a. loan. Ho got a contract to purchase some flats for £5.000 in Jermyn street, but, never represented to Miss Carter that he had paid for tho property. Mtes Carter confided to witness on one occasion that she had been to dinner at tho Savoy with seme wealthy Cardiff magnates, and that if fee had boon dining there with her they might have put tip tho money for the flats. At rim time Miss Carter was lending him mm they were very friendly, and wool :r together nearly every day to the PmcndllV Hotel, Romano’s, Giro’s, the Savoy, and places of that description.

Recorder: Where did the money eo>r: from —She was lending me money. Did she know yon were living pvdh other lady at that time? —Yes, and d:d bet best to separate us, and succeeded. Defendant went on to describe an incident in Charges street, where he had gone to visit the lady lie had previously lived with. Mies Carter, he averred, came to the house and banged at the door. He told the landlady to say he was not there, but Miss Carter persisted, and lie eventually went down and spoke to her. Defendant agreed he was married, hut had not lived with his wife for some years past. Describing tho scene at his arrest, defendant explained that ho was with tho came lady in tlio Oayotir Restaurant when Miss Gaiter and her sister saw them and waited for them to come out. “They both confronted us,” continued Pickering, “and Miss Carter informed me that she had a warrant for my arrest. I replied ‘lmpossible.’ She followed us to Whitehall, where I said I would rote the matter to a policeman. I put my companion in a fcud. and Miss Carter followed us to Victoria. I there told tho lady with me to leave and I wont with Miss Carter to tho police station.” Pickering admitted, that he had had several bankruptcy notices served on him. At the time ho was borrowing tho money ho was living in a seven-guinea fiat at the rate of £2.000 a .year._ Questioned about tho cheque for £2lO which had been dishonored, he declared it was a cheque ho ■had given in regard to a belting transaction, which he afterwards repudiated. He _ admitted that several cheques he had given at London restaurants had been dishonored, but several of tho debts were subsequently Oliver; Did you know that tho money you got out of Miss Carter was every penny she had? —No. , , , Mr Braby a solicitor, who acted tor ovreiKknt in the flat transaction, recounted a conversation he had with too !ad\. r ■ Carter declared that if she lost her money sho would make it unpleasant for licbun.,, as ho had no business to take money from a noor irirl like her. ~ . . Was it suggested that £IOO paid into your bank was obtained by Miss Carter from a coal merchant with whom sue timed at tl.Savoy ?—I know nothing about it. Cross-examined, witness agree*. teat. Carter had attacked bis conduct m tor, inter at tho police court. and_ adord turn- • wan now instructing counsel for thy y : ' Did Pickering tell you he was Jtvmg v ;• .

her? —Yes. What do you think of that—UUmg -f from a woman with whom he v.. , '■ when ho was hopelessly ire- :1 ■'‘ ■" y unusual. 1 have known many miv. Recorder: What is net It is not unusual tor a man to woman, or a woman to finance ... m o. they are living together. , Counsel: Would yon have itdva.an a of yours to lend a penny on mMinim -- ; • cies with the premiums unpam o: a ■ ■ the edge of bankruptcy? .no j 1,1 v ;'“; that reason 1 told her i cou.d not 1 Recorder: Why didn't vou My: “I can not flcal willi this 1 a:il , citor. You must come, to-morrow and n.r.o proper legal advice Thinking it <>\ C! . perhaps that would have term te-Uer, bit she appeared anxious to lend him money ,i.n< save him from bankruptcy. . , After a lengthy summing up, m which too Recorder caustically referred to ibe relationship between the parties.and thcimnbods adopted by the solicitor actum on bcltah of prisoner iti ilto mailer of tlic c <ni the. life insurance cod ideates, I he. jury lournl Bickering guilty of fr.indulent conversion.— De.irct.iyc-scrfeant Hester stale* that accused had not been previously convicted. He had spent mwt of liLs nbroau. in .Time, 1919, lie was cited as m divorce proceedings, and damages and cosw wore awarded against him to the. amount of £2OO. Tliis money had never been pma. He. was married, with a family, and at the time of his arrest was living wit.i a gin of nineteen, who was not the same woman mentioned in the case. Accused bad boon called noon to appear for examination lor bankruptcy, but had not yet obeyed lac summons.' For some .time, he had been living a direoluto life in tho 'West rum —ln passing Fontcnce of eighteen months hard labor.'the Recorder remarked that it was a pity to find prisoner, who was yet a young man, living under such immoral conditaons as had been disclosed.