POLICE COURT

Evening Star, Issue 19542, 28 April 1927, Page 5

POLICE COURT

THURSDAY, APRIL 28. (Before Me J. R. Bartholomew, S.M.) THEFT FROM THEATRE. Frederick Olsen Petersen pleaded not guilty to the theft of a lady’s frock, valued at £1 19s, the property of Marion Lloyd. Cecil George Ashwell, caretaker at His Majesty’s Theatre, said that at 6.30 p.m. on Tuesday he met the accused coming from the stage. He walked towards the engine room door, and witness asked him what he was doing there. Accused said he had been “having a sing on the stage.” His hands .were in his pockets and his coat was bulging. • Witness fastened the door to prevent accused going out, and the latter went into the lavatory. The police wore called in, and accused was taken to the station. Later the dress was found in the lavatory. Witness had warned accused off the premises several times previously. Constable Johnson said that he arrested accused, who said he had gone to the theatre with some other men to drink beer. He had had drink, but was not drunk at the time of his arrest. A dress was found later in the lavatory. Constable Milne said accused, when interrogated, denied being on the stage or in the lavatory. He said be had gone to the hack of the theatre to drink whisky with two men, whom, however, he could not describe. ' Accused declined to he sworn, but made a statement to the effect that he met two fellows—he did not know who they were—and went into the theatre yard to drink whisky with them. Then the caretaker came along and challenged him, and later the constable took him to the station. “I got the shock of my life,” said the accused, “when they told me afterwards that something was missing and that a dross had been found in the lavatory. T don’t know am-tiling about it.” The Magistrate: Is that all you have to say? The Accused; Yes. that's all. His Worship: Convicted. The Senior Sergeant, in handing up the accused’s “list,” mentioned that the latter had been thrice previously convicted of theff and several times of drunken offences. Accused was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment, with hard labor. OUT IN THE RAIN. A first offender, charged with drunkenness, said ho was “ sleeping on a seat in the Queen’s Gardens when the constable caught him.”—Senior-sergeant Quartermjjin said that defendant had been robbed of £2O or more yesterday. —The Magistrate remarked that a sober man would scarcely go to sleep in the open on a night like last night.—Defendant was convicted anti discharged, i