GIRL’S STORY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 62, 11 February 1936, Page 8

GIRL’S STORY.

ALLEGED HOLD-UP.’’ OPOTIKI, Feb. 10. The sequel to a sensational story of an alleged hold-up by two men was the appearance in the Opotiki Police Court, before Justices of the Peace, of a girl aged 20, whose name was ordered to be suppressed, on a charge of theft of £2 6s 3d from the house where, she was employed. Accused pleaded guilty and was put on probation for 12 months and was ordered to make restitution. The girl had telephoned to the iioliee and stated that she had been- bound and gagged by two men who had asked where her mistress kept her money, and had then gone through the house and, she alleged, stolen the amount of £2 6s 3d from a purse which they found in the bedroom. Constable Beasley went to the house and took a statement from the girl to that effect. AATiilc examining the house, the constable noticed that the bed on which the girl said she had been lying when the men tied her up had not been disturbed in any way, which made him doubt the truth of her story. It appears that the employers of the girl had gone out for the afternoon and at about 4.30 p.m. a neighbour’s daughter, who was in the habit of taking one of the children out, called at the house for the child. AVliile at the door she heard someone knocking on a wall, and on opening the door found the girl all bound .up and gagged, her legs and hands being tied partly with string and a belt which had been worn by the girl. The neighbour’s daughter first pulled out the gag from the girl’s mouth and had to get a knife to cut the string from her hands and feet. The girl _tlien told her tale of how she had seen two men come into lier room, but she could not identify them. AVhen the constable was questioning her ho asked why she did not scream or kick and put up a fight, to which she replied that she was too frightened. The constable then went into tho other rooms and saw that tho chest of drawers had been opened, but the contents had not been strewn about, which, ho thought, went to show that the person who opened the drawers did it only for appearances. The girl was asked the next morning to come to the polices tatioii, where she was further questioned by Sergeant Miller and Constable Beasley, the result being that the nrosecution followed.