FEMALE FIRE BUG

Evening Star, Issue 23727, 7 November 1940, Page 14

FEMALE FIRE BUG

14 CHARGES OF ARSON ADMITTED " FELT SHE MUST SET FIRE TO SOMETHING " [Per United Press Association.] NELSON, November G. As a sequel to the fires in the Hotel Nelson on the night of October 21, when the GovernorGeneral (Viscount Galway) was a guest, also recent fires in the Royal Hotel (Palmerston North), the Nurses’ Home at the Pukeora Sanatorium (Waipukurau), and a dwelling at Ponsonby (Auckland), 14 charges of, arson, attempted arson, and ont of theft were brought against Monica Edna Gann, aged 28, in the Nelson Magistrate’s Court to-day. The accused pleaded guilty to all the charges and was committed to the Supreme Court at Nelson for sentence. Detective-sergeant Hay hurst produced statements in which the accused said that for months she had had a considerable -amount of trouble, not being able to throw off a queer feeling. When in Nelson she went to the lounge of the Hotel-Nelson. Then she went to the top floor of the building and set alight to bed clothes there. She rejoined the guests, hut later went to two other rooms and set alight to the bed clothes. She lit all the fires with wax matches. No one else bad anything to do with her actions. Witness said that the accused also made a statement about fires at the Royal Hotel, Palmerston North. She stated that she was employed at the hotel, but had been told that she was drinking too much. She remembered returning to the hotel late one -night and going to a room in the hotel. In regard to a fire at the Pukeora Sanatorium Nurses’ Home, the accused made a statement saying that she had had a lot of worry, tohe got queer, depressed feelings, and when she was like that she always felt that she must set tire to something. She admitted some of the fires which had occurred at the sanatorium, but could not remember the others. Further, she admitted being responsible for several outbreaks at the home of her aunt, Miss Teresa Walsh, Ponsonby, Auckland.

The evidence showed that damage was caused to various buildings as follows:—Hotel Nelson, £B2O (14 rooms .affected); Pukeora Nurses’ Home, £5,100’ (main portion of the home); Royal Hotel. Palmerston North, £218; Ponsonby house, £B3. The charge of theft concerned £lO taken from the purse of a friend accompanying the accused on a boat from Wellington to Nelson. The accused was employed at the Hotel Nelson as a waitress several years ago.