PEST TO SOCIETY

Evening Star, Issue 23861, 16 April 1941, Page 9

PEST TO SOCIETY

With her shy smile and her uncovered head revealing a neat Eton crop, the pretty 21-year-old shorthand typist who ntepped into tihe dock at the London Sessions looked a typical English sports girl. No one in court could have guessed that she would be described by the police as a pest to society and that from the proceeds of her crimes she was able to live in comparative luxury in a West End hotel and also run a liar, in Hampstead. The girl, Myra M'Cartney, of Hampstead, pleaded guilty to two charges of stealing and one of breaking and entering, and she asked for 83 other cases, nearly all of stealing, to be taken into consideration. She was ordered to be detained in a Borstal institution for a period not exceeding three years. “A clever, sophisticated girl fast developing criminal habits; a girl of ability who has used it for dishonest purposes rather than for honest ones,” was how one report described M'Cartney. That it did her no injustice was shown by the fact that she paid systematic visits to West End stores, where she indulged in the wholesale stealing of the handbags of other women shoppers. When the police visited M'Cartney’s Hat at Hampstead they found scores of handbags, which she had acquired in this way. That there was little excuse for M'Oattney indulging in her orgy of crime was shown by the fact that her education included a business training. She is also an expert shorthand typist. Because of her qualifications she had no difficulty in obtaining appointments, but she never kept any for long. In fact, she had been employed by nine different firms in the West End in the course of a few years. In one case she stole a cheque for £43 belonging to her employer, and this formed the subject of one of three charges preferred against . her. Her chief source of income, however, came from the proceeds of stolen handbags and their contents. In all sbo was known to have acquired more than £6OO in this way, a great deal of it being hard cash. According to Detective Alfred Halford, when M'Cartney went on her housebreaking escapade at Latymer Court, Hammersmith, she worked out her plans after stealing a handbag in which she found a key and the address of the house she entered. After being informed that M‘Cartnoy had been twice previously bound over for larceny, the chairman, Mr Eustace Fulton, remarked that_ she obviously needed a course of discipline.