MAID’S ALLEGED ARSON

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 August 1930, Page 2

MAID’S ALLEGED ARSON

SANG WHILE HOUSE BURNED. A remarkable story of a series of fires at the house of Miss Maud Allan, the dancer, at Holford House, Regent’s Park, N.W., was told at the Marlborough Street Court, when Hetty Johns, aged 17, was charged with arson at the house and also at the flat of Mr. Samuel Frances, in Upper Marylebone Street, N.W. ,*■ Mr. A. Lawson Walton, prosecuting, said the girl came to London from Wales, and was engaged ffs parlourmaid by Miss Maud Allan on December 24. Three days later a fire broke out in the boxroom, and on the next day another fire occurred in the same room. On December 29, a fire was discovered in the oak room, where the door was locked and the key missing, and on the following day a fire occurred in a bedroom.

In each case, while the brigade was extinguishing the fire and the rest of the household was carrying buckets of water, Johns was in the kitchen making tea, which she took to Miss Allan and which she had herself. She was also talking to a friend. On the instructions of the insurance company Miss Allan dismissed all her servants and Johns obtained a situation with Mr. and Mrs. Frances. On May 23, about 8 a.m., Johns rushed into Mrs. Frances’s bedroom shouting: “Burglars have been in. There is smoke in the kitchen.” Firemen had to be called to put out the flames. Johns afterwards signed an alleged confession, in which she said: I lit a match and chucked it on the settee. I then ran into the bedroom and pulled the things out of the boxes and opened the window. I left a lighted cigarette on the carpet and placed a lighted cigarette on the carpet under the chair. Then I went into the kitchen and took the drawers out to make it look as if somebody had been in there. Then I went back to bed, and when I woke up I ran into Mrs. Frances’s bedroom. Mr. Walton said that the girl did not seem to realise the seriousness of what had happened. She was the coolest person while the fire raged and walked about humming, A remand was ordered.