A DECEIVER OF WOMEN

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 22, Issue 67, 29 August 1911, Page 4

A DECEIVER OF WOMEN

FORTY-TWO VICTIMS “ I think the earth never cont lined a more infamous scoundrel than you are," observed Judge Rentoul in passing sentence of seven years’ penal servitude upon George William Lucid, alias Leslie, aged thirty-nine, at the Central Criminal Court, London. According to the police the prisoner had made love to dozens of women with the object of defrauding them of their money. He was specifically charged with two offences of this description and found guilty. A Miss Mary Jackson said she gave the prisoner £SO to meet expenses in connection with mortgages on property which he said he possessed in Cornwall and Bristol. Miss Annie Sutton Greenwell, a cook, of Grantham, stated that she gave him various sums for a similar purpose. The firshmamed lady made the prisoner’s acquaintance through a publication called '• Cupid's Chronicle,” and the latter met him as the result of a matrimonial advertisement in a Birmingham newspaper.

The jury having returned their verdict on the charges of fraud, the bigamy charge was proceeded with. It was shown that the prisoner was married in July, 1906, to Mrs Kateßansome at Compton Gifford, Devonshire. In September, 1909, he met Ethel Selfe, a typist, and married her at a Holborn registry office. Prisoner denied that he had committed bigamy, but declined to “ enter into details because of their painful character.” A verdict of guilty was returned.

Mr Symmons, who prosecuted, said that prisoner obtained /1500 from Mrs Ransome, and when the money had gone he left her. A warrant was subsequently issued against him as an absconding bankrupt. At his premises the police found 2700 letters, and it was evident that he bad kept a careful list of the people with whom he was corresponding. In 1909 ha was writing to twenty-tnree different women, in 1910 twelve oi these remained, and there were twent)-three fresh ones —thirty five in all. In 1911 there were seven others, which brought the total to forty-two. A number of the letters showed that money had been included in the envelopes, and at least £285 had been traced by references in the letters, A statement by Detective-inspector Tappenderi showed that the prisoner had bad an inglorious career in the army and was sentenced to seven years’ penal servitude for stealing postal orders from the regimental orderly room and for forging discharges. Between 1898 and 1906 he obtained over £IOOO from ten different women. Prisoner : You are mixing me up with somebody else. I am still conscious of being innocent of the whole thing. He was sentenced, as stated, to seven years’ penal servitude.