Well-known Businessman In Women’s Clothing

Manawatu Times, Volume 67, Issue 22, 27 January 1942, Page 5

Well-known Businessman In Women’s Clothing

AFFAIR HAS SEQUEL IN COURT Per Press Association. TIMARU, Jan. 26. How a well-known Timaru businessman paraded in women’s clothing at Caroline Lay on Sunday, when he aroused suspicion as a spy, and was later arrested in the women’s waitingroom of the Timaru railway station, was told in the Magistrate’s Court today. Accused was William Claude Marcell Preen, married, aged 41. He pleaded guilty to being found unlawfully in the waiting-room at the station. The police said Preen gave no excuse for his conduct, but probably had seen so many women in male attire that he thought he could wear female attire. The idea had been in his mind for some time and he had bought the clothes in Christchurch and Timaru. There was no evidence that he had molested any women. When found in the waiting-room he was reading a book and smoking which was “nothing out of the way for females these days. ’ ’ It was mentioned that he travelled by train to Christchurch dressed the same way. Counsel said that Preen, who had been drawn in the last ballot, had been respected in Timaru for the last 24 years. His lapse was the result of some craze to seo how it felt to dress like a woman. He had been thinking about it for a long time time and with his wife away and mobilisation pending, it was his last opportunity. The Magistrate, Mr. H. Morgan, said the case was probably one for medical investigation, rather than punishment as a criminal offence. Preen was ordered to come up for sentence if called upon within 12 months.