A DUNEDIN DEN.

NZ Truth, Issue 123, 26 October 1907, Page 4

A DUNEDIN DEN.

« SLY-GROG SHOP AND BROTHEL. A Trio Tried at Court. An Unsavoury Pair Imprisoned. A den of drunkenness and debauchery m Dunedin was smashed up properly during the week, when at the S.M. Court, before Magistrate Widdowson, a female named Ella Regan, who was represented by Mr B. S. Irwin, was charged with selling swankey on September 27 and 28, she not having a license. Ella pleaded guilty and admitted also the soft impeachment of keeping a brothel. Ella is becoming quite a well-known figure m the S.M. Court, as it was only recently she was convicted of sly-grog-selling. Next, Mary Rachael Barnes toed the judicial scratch, and her little lot was m assisting m the management of the drum. She also pleaded guilty. In his turn came a bright specimen of the bludger order named Herbert Anderson: whom the police had vagged, and he also pleaded guilty. Police Sub-Inspector Norwood told the Court that eighteen months ago Regan and Anderson took up their abode m King-street, where THEY KEPT A BROTHEL. It was a vile place, and Mary Rachael Barnes was the latest recruit to the rooking establishment, having gone there less than a couple of months ago. The police gave the den a torrid character. Weli-skinned optics had observed it, and took mental and other notes of the number of men who visited the dear creatures m their abode of love a/b nierht and other times, and then the police acted. A plain-clothes copper, a stranger to Dunedin, along with a mate, knocked at the door, and it was opened unto them, Regan and her bludger Anderson being present. The visitine cops out for a razzle got a bottle of beer, and all four had a swip" for which the country naid half a dollar. Another bottle was also produced, and it was done full justice. A similar soiree happened th* next nifht, when Barnes was present, and of course, the rest was easy. The police raided the joint and a considerable quantity of swankey was found on the premises, m fact, it was quite a young brewery. Anderson's duti.es about the den was that he touted for trade, and kept a lookout for the police. He disliked honest work, and lived on the women's prostitution and the illicit sale of grotr. He is said to be a watchmaker, but the only watch he knows anything about is the one he kept FOR POLICEMEN AND MUGS who were likely to visit Ella and Mary. His record is also bad. He had been fin-ed for keeping a brothel m Auckland, and the angelic Ella had been with him on the occasion. He's a criminal is Anderson, and has been convicted of false pretences. Ella's other conviction was for sly-grog-selling. Anderson's lawyer said all he could for the wretch, and it was not much. He said that m the intervals of the two brothel cases, he had not been charged with any offence, which, if anything. only goes to show that Anderson is lucky. Moreover, he blamed the women, because as long as he wasn't tangled up with them he was all right. Mr Scurr, who appeared for the beatific Barnes, reckoned she was only a tool m the hands of the others, and at the time of her arrest, she was about to be married, and would, he believed, be hitched up as soon as her trouble was over and he suggested that she should be ordered to come up for sentence when called upon. The marriage was, it was stated, to come off at Gore, and the police said the story was true, and the Beak being considerate let Mar- off with a fine of 40s or a month. Regan and Anderson got three months each. Regan for sly-grog-selling got three months concurrent with the three months' sentence for keeping a brothel.