GIRL'S STRANGE IDEAS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22118, 25 May 1935, Page 2 (Supplement)

GIRL'S STRANGE IDEAS

STEALS FOR EXPERIENCE

SECRET SERVICE AMBITION

"MADE A CRUDE JOB OF IT"

Daughter of an ex-polico sergeant, * girl of 18, whose ambition is to become a Criminal Investigation Department or Secret Service worker, faced a charge of theft at Ealing, London, last month. She explained that she had been only putting to practical test some of her theories on criminology. The accused was Violet Kathleen Cattell, of Ealing, a brunette, who works as a book-keeper in a city firm of insurance brokers. She was charged stealing a diamond ring, a pair of gold cuff links, a mother-o'-pearl crucifix and other articles, valued at £ls. belonging to Mr. John Adams, of Ealing. Mr. Adams explained that when found in an upstairs room, Miss Cattell treated the whole affair as a joke. "I did not do it with any actual criminal intention," Miss Cattell told the Bench. "I have always been interested in that type of thing, and always believed that practice is better than theory. I thought that if I found out myself why these things are done I should be wiser." Her father, ex-Sergeant J. H. tell, who served for 26 years with the Metropolitan Police, spoke of her keenness for criminology, and the magistrates dismissed the case, saying they wore satisfied there was no felonious intent. . , In a subsequent interview ex-ser-geant Cattell referred to the romantic disposition of his daughter, and of her

strong determination to make a career for herself in criminology. " This idea she has of becoming a Criminal Investigation Department or Secret Service worker is not a new one; she has harboured it for years," he stated. " Ever since she was a tiny child she has been of a keenly inquiring mind, and when she was only eight years old and I took her one day to the Old Bailey she asked me innumerable questions about the place. Since she left school she has spent most of her leisure reading all kinds of li.terature dealing with criminal and Secret Service matters. " She does not think there was anything serious in what she did. She had ♦.very intention of returning the goods. But, as I told her, speaking from my long experience as a police officer, she made a very crude job of it. " I suppose nothing will content her until she starts police work or joins some branch of the Secret Service. She tells me she has already been in touch with Secret Service officials."