FOUR YEARS IN CAVE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22615, 31 December 1936, Page 12

FOUR YEARS IN CAVE

OLD MAN HIDES GIRL STRANGE CASE IN MALAYA [from our own cobresfondknt] SINGAPORE, Nov. '2O How an old man of 60 fell in love with a girl 16 years old and kept her concealed in an underground cell in his hut for four years was told in Magistrate's Court on the East C oast of Malaya recently. Both were Chinese. The man, Tam Chat, was charged with wrongfully confining tho girl. According to the prosecution, one day in 11K12 a Chinese girl about Hi years of ago was missed by her guardians. Although an intensive search was made, the girl could not be found. Living close by was an old Chinese man, a market gardener. This man had fallen in love with tho girl and because he could not win her by fair means he made an underground cell in his hut. (Jnder some pretext lie persuaded the girl In visit the hut, forcibly detained her, and locked her up in the underground chamber. I'e lived with her for the intervening period of four years without. tho neighbours suspecting anything. The strange episode was brought to light by the merest chance, when, during a Chinese festival, a male relative of the missing girl went to the old man Jo buy vegetables. The visitor heard the man conversing with a woman. When asked who the woman was, the old man replied that it was nobody and that ho was just, talking to himself. The visitor's suspicions were aroused and be insist,ed on being allowed inside the house to find out for himself. A si niggle ensued, during which the elderly Chinese suffered slight injuries. The matter was reported to the police, who found the girl in the subterranean cell. She had on old and tattered clothes and was pale and weak. Accused was sentenced to two years' rigorous imprisonment.