SINGULAR CHARGE OF ABDUCTION.

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1897, 4 September 1874, Page 3

SINGULAR CHARGE OF ABDUCTION.

A charge of abduction was heard at the Prahran Police Court, Victoria, on August 20. Alexander Stein, a watchmaker, apparently of middle age, was charged with abducting a girl named Ann Jane Manley, under 10 years of age, from the possession of her father, Charles Manley, a brewer's driver. The girl stated that she was 14 years old last May, and was living with her father and mother, in Chapel street, Prahran. The prisoner resided next door. He first spoke to her about six months ago. He was in the habit of going into the house, and of giving her and the other children sweetmeats and fruit. He gave her a locket, and a pair of bracelets about six months ago ; she was working at a machinist's in Argyle street, South Yarra, and she often saw him waiting for her. At his request she went with him to see the Melbourne Public Library, and had her portrait taken, he paying and keeping one copy, and giving her two. On several other occasions he met and spoke to her. About that time he spoke to her about going to Tasmania, saying that he would give her a gold watch and chain, and that her father would not find her out by advertising if she went to Tasmania with him, as no telegrams went there. Afterwards he told her to be ready to go to Tasmania when his brother returned from Sunbury, and last Friday said he had £100 in the bank, and asked her to go and stop at his house, saying he would lock the door, so that her mother and sister would not know she was there. She went to his house about 9 o'clock that night, and next day he cut a hole in the B|wall and placed the piece against it, so that there might be a means for her to escape if her mother should go into the house. She said she would go to Tasmania with him. He made a bed on a stretcher for her on Friday night. On Saturday afternoon he was going to clean a coat with benzine, and she asked for it to clean gloves, and he gave it to her. She dropped some of the benzine on the health, and it caught fire, and her hair and the glove she was holding also caught fire. She screamed, and he threw a can of water over her, and put his hand on her mouth to stop her screaming. Her sister Bella was heard coming in, and he told the witness to go out through a hole he had cut, and she did so, and stood in a narrow space between the walls of Stein's house and the adjoining building. Stein put up the piece he had cut out, so that the hole was concealed. Bella came in and asked, " Is that Anne screaming ?" Stein said, "No, it was. myself; I was frightened." Bella remarked, " You screamed like my sister," and the witness's mother then came in and complained of the smell of the burning. They went out, and prisoner opened the trap and re-admitted witness. The witness remained there until Monday morning. That morning the prisoner opened the backdoor to go to the tap, which was common to the two houses, and the witness's sister tried to run in, but the prisoner stopped her. The mother then said Bhe was told that her daughter was there. The witness went out through the hole, but did not put up the cover, and when her mother entered she saw the aperture, and looking through it, saw the witness in the space between the two houses. Witness's mother then accused the prisoner of having led her daughter away, and she gave him a thrashing with a saucepan she was carrying. She gave information to the police, and Sergeant Parkinson arrested him in a house to which he had gone. When arrested the prisoner said that the girl came to his house at twelve o'clock at nigit, and asked for shelter, and that he admitted her to give her shelter. It was elicited in cross, examination that the girl had been twice away for two or three weeks each time without her parents' knowledge. On the first occasion she went to the house of an acquaintance in Lonsdale street, and on the other to the house of persons at Caulfield. The .. parties were respectable people in each instance. Mr Pridham, for the defence, argued that there was no proof of abduction, as the girl had, as the prisoner stated, gone to his house and asked for shelter, instead of his taking her away. The Bench committed the prisoner for trial, allowing bail in the prisoner's bond in LSO, and one surety in LSO, or two in L 25.