OPEN CELL DOOR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13497, 25 May 1907, Page 2 (Supplement)

OPEN CELL DOOR.

STRANGE SEQUEL TO OVERHEARD

! • PRISON SECRET. | A secret overheard in a prison resulted in, a curious incident at Plimico, London, where two men posed as' Scotland Yard officials, and are, alleged to have carried out a daring theft. The'- men, Arthur Winter and Richard Barrington, well-dressed young fellows, were arrested at Hove, and were brought before the Westminster magistrate charged with theft, Barrington being also accused of obtaining money ,by false pretences. 1 v ■- -, ■ : \- L : V;..:-::-:---, .';;. ;•, . /

The; property in question belongs to a Frenchman, t named Alexander Dumont, otherwise Magagua, now undergoing a term of imprisonment 'in Portsmouth. Before his conviction Dumont had lodged at a house in Cumberland-street, Pimlico. 'The landlady, Mrs. Morgan, told the court that Dumont stayed with her about a month last , autumn, and then he suddenly disappeared, leaving a trunk and a hat-box. She heard no mOre of him until he wrote her from prison. '•_ "' •■- • ■ Then, on March 8, Barrington, ' she said, presented himself at her door, explained that he was Detective-Inspector Drew, of Scotland Yard, and told her that he must go upstairs and search Dumont's trunk. "1 must call the sergeant," he is reported: to have said, whereupon Winter • came 'on the scene. " I asked him what Dumont had been taken for," said Mrs.: Morgan. "They told me 'for stealing diamond rings.' They said they couldn't waste any more time. They must go up and search the box. They said they had the key, and likewise the key of the front door." ••

".;'"'Mrs. Morgan described how the men opened the trunk, and took out the cash-box, which' contained a number of pawn tickets, Barriiigton, she ; said, exclaimed, "This is the ticket for the'gold watch." ' - ' "They asked me if I had missed 1 anything from my home," went on the witness, " and I told them '-No.' 'Well,' they said, - 'we must take.the" box ;to Scotland Yard we cannot search it here.' They then locked the . box, and took it and the hat-box away. They gave me a receipt"—Which was handed to the magistrate,"Mr. Curtis Bennett. .: ■ Mrs. i Newman, of Denbigh-street, Pimlico, then took up the story. She said that on the same :". day Barrington and Winter engaged two of her rooms, bringing with them the trunk and the hat-box. "They told me that if I wanted a reference, they could give a banker's reference, but I did : not trouble about it." - -.. -• --• • •• : : ■ . "..'.-■■:■• ,; rOSED AS A JOjURNALIST. - . • v' Seven days later,'. said Mrs.'.Newman," Winter borrowed £3 from'her, telling her that he was a poultry farmer in Australia, and was'" here for a holiday." Having obtained the money he went off, ' and never came back. ; Previously, Barrington, wbo bad represented that'he was a reporter oh a daily newspaper,"; though it was discovered that he was in ho way connected with the journal, had gone out, saying that he . -was going to Willesderi ■ "to make ! a' report." .-'> Mrs. •; Newman ; ; added -;' that •"- she heard Barrington' say to Winter, "I shall bring you the money back," ■:, . ' " K Dumont, who was in* charge of a'warder from Portsmouth prison, went into the wit-ness-box. The magistrate wanted to ; know how the men in the , dock knew where he had lived. In broken English he said that Barririgtori had occupied a cell opposite to his own. '■'■■ ..-■■'■■ - " I dictated the letter I wrote to Mrs. Morgan to the schoolmaster," said Dumont. "The cell-door /was open, and Barrington must have heard me giving the address." j Dumont estimated the value of his goods; at £20. ' •.•;•'• ' "'I Questioned- by Barrington, Dumont denied that lie had authorised him to take the j trunk to' a' young woman living at Bude | Mansions, Chafing Cross. | j " Did you not give me two keys, and ray j that one' of them fitted your box, and that j I should find some stuff in it from the Mid- ! Hand Hotel, Manchester?"—" No." ' ■". ; j | / Dumont said he had never been to-Man-' ] |Chester, and that the articles he had pledged) | had been bought by' him in' various , parts of London. , v Some "tools found on one of \ |the prisoners were his property. His own key of -the trunk had been, he said; in the (possession of the .governor ?.of Portsmouth !Prison. -It produced in court, and. "found'to lit the bos.; '' ; : i Detective-Sergeant Smith, who, with an- ■ other . officer, received'•''; the prisoners "into ' custody at Hove, stated that on the way to London Barrington said: "I suppose this will mean the breeches (meaning penal: servitude). Dumont gave me the key <f the box. We went to Cumberland-street, and j I said I was Detective-Inspector Drew." i Both Barrington and Winter were committed to the Clerkenwell Sessions. ■.-■'.-"