DARK NYMPH AT DAWN

NZ Truth, Issue 1128, 14 July 1927, Page 7

DARK NYMPH AT DAWN

Baronet In A Very Black Affair

" Perfect sanity is extremely rare, " said one of our medical, experts m court the other day, and this dictum is already being Used to cover some of the freakish individuals who figure m the papers day by. day. '■' ' .*. . '"' • . . ■ _'■___ i_i

A STRANGE case of feminine mentality is. the prosecution of. the eccentric 7 baronet, Su* "Jerry" Maxwell-Willshire, of Hindhead, Surrey, on a charge of assaulting . and maltreating Jean Olds, a girl assistant out of a hairdressing saloon m Kensington. They met m a Maidenhead hotel at a dance, it seems, and again at her j lodgings one evening 7 where he called .according to an appointment made by 'phone. He drove her m his^car to two or three hotels of the more expensive order for cocktails and champagne. Then he drove her off to Maidstone, m Kent, where they had whiskys and soda, by. ringing up a night porter at one m' the morning. Resuming the drive, the baronet suddenly m a wood and bewilderments began. Small, wonder, considering the prologue of liquor all the way. Complaining of feeling ill, 'she says, Sir Gerald sat down beside her, like the spider m the ballad of Miss Muffet. But there was ho frightening, her away, for, according to her own account, • Miss Olds went through a course of treatment which leaves common sense gasping m disniay. He gagged her with cotton wool, tied her hands. behind her back with string, and when she managed to scream, he alternately terrified and coaxed her. At last Sir Gerald decided to drive away and the couple entered the car again. , - He changed his mind, stopped the engine and then began the strangest proceedings of all.

Her story is that at a sudden command of his she took off her clothing, ail but her stockings and shoes, and this m /the middle of the road at three m the morning, because she was so terrified that "there was nothing to do but obey." He had a "slip-on" pair of gloves and. held her .wrists' with one hand, while he groped m a tin of something with the '.-'other I.'1 .' The ' tin contained some' Substance that was black and greasy, and ho proceeded to smear her all over, with it; as if they had been rehearsing for a 'Yankee tank, stunt. , She says she screamed, but lie only told her to shut her eyes while he blacked her face. "Then he loosed me," she added m Court, "and I turned round and fled into the Avood." 7 She wandered about until she found a cottage . where awoman came to the door and let her m. She came back ,to London m the evening m, another lot of clothes. „...,■ She showed a deal of nervousness m giving her evidence, but persisted under cross-examination that, all she had said was true; although 'she could not make it reasonable or persuade . counsel that - she had acted, -under the : defendant's. influence all the time. . Evidence was given showing thai : the pair had left the Maidstone Hotel ,' at 2.15 a.m.'and the case was adjourned I on bail. .;,- : But' we do not learn what the s startled cottager said on seeing on her • doorstep a blackened nymph at dawn [Sir Gerald Maxwell-Willshire was s later sentenced to six months' Jm- ; prisonment.]— From "N.Z. : Truth's' Special London Rep.