PECULIAR PLEA
A WOMAN'S CRIME. DONE UNDER PRESSURE. AN EXTRAORDINARY CASE. (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON. This day. The Counsel, Mr. Tread well, intimated to Mr. Page, 3.M., at the Police Court yesterday that he intended to set up a plea under the Special Defence Act in connection with seven charges 'against a young woman, Grace Smith, of forging and uttering orders of withdrawal on the Post Office savings Lank.
It was alleged that Smith appropriated the deposit books of the people defrauded, filled in withdrawal slips and secured in all a total of '£lo2 -10 s. While enquiries were being made by the police the woman disappeared, and it was not until ■ December last that she was located at Palmerston North, where she was working in a boarding house under the name of Mrs. Olga Graham. She then made a full confession of the offences. Mr. Treadwell said that the circumstances were so singular. He desired to place them before Jiis Worship immediately so that in the interim before the trial they could be verified. On September 7th,' 1917 accused married RobertSmith, but shortly afterwards the latter was called up for active service. Later he deserted, and it was not until October 1918, that his wife met him in Wellington. Ho then demanded money. She gave him all she possessed; but he threatened to break her neck unless she gave him more. He next directed her to purloin
the bank deposit books, and under tho direct • threats accused did so after which her husband took her to the bank and forced Tier to secure tho money. Not a penny of the proceeds were returned by the accused. In the time between the commission of the offences she was often accosted by her husband who threatened to take hev lii'o if she divulged a word of what was going on. On one occasion lie struck at her, but missing his objective hit accused's three weeks' old baby. Counsel then put in a statement which accused signed in the Magistrate's presence. A plea of not guilty was entered and Smith committed to the Supreme Court for trial. •
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Greymouth Evening Star, 1 April 1920, Page 7
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355PECULIAR PLEA Greymouth Evening Star, 1 April 1920, Page 7
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