MAGISTRATE’S COURT

Southland Times, Issue 22999, 19 September 1936, Page 9

MAGISTRATE’S COURT

FRIDAY.

(Before Mr W. H. Freeman, S.M.)

A girl, aged 20, a domestic employed in the isolation ward of the Southland Hospital, whose name was suppressed, was charged with on August 22 stealing an overcoat, valued at £1 17/6, from a nurse employed in the same institution. Detective-Sergeant Thompson conducted the case for the police, while Mr G. J. Reed appeared for the accused. A plea of not guilty was entered. Detective-Sergeant Thompson said that early on the afternoon of August 22 a nurse had left her overcoat in the corridor of the staff quarters. When she had returned at six o’clock to collect it, the coat was missing. On September 5 she had had occasion to visit the kitchen quarters. There she had seen her missing overcoat. She had examined it and found the accused s name on the back, substituted for her own, which had been there when the coat was stolen. When the accused was interviewed by Detective Smith she had admitted taking the overcoat, but stated that she had never put her name on the coat. The accused admitted having taken the coat away from the corridor where she used to leave her own. It had been raining heavily that day and her own black coat was very wet. She had worn the other coat back to the hospital the following day and then taken it back home, where she had left it. She had never worn it again after that, nor had she ever written her name on it. She had lost her position as a result of this episode. The accused was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence within six months, if called upon, the coat to be returned to the owner.