A SORDID STORY.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 March 1920, Page 2

A SORDID STORY.

GIRL'S BLIGHTED LIFE. FROM CHINAMAN'S WIFE TO HOTEL THIEF. -- What was described aa a sordid story was told in the Wellington Magistrate's Court, -when Kitty Stewart was charged with'the theft of a gold watch, valued at £i», from Amy MeParland. Sub-Inspector Emerson said that on January 5 Miss MeParland, who is the daughter of the licensee of the Tramway Hotel, saw accused coming down the stairs of the hotel, but thought she was one of the maids. Afterwards Miss MeParland found that her gold _ wristlet watch had been stolen. She informed the police and afterwards accused came into the hotel and was observed to have the watch with her. Accused said she got the watch from a man she did not know. She was brought before the Magistrate on January Oth, allowed out on bail, and did not reappear. She was arrested again in Gis•borne on February 24th. Mr. E. K. Kirkealdie, who appeared for accused, said her story was a rathersordid one. At the early age of 21 years she became associated with a Chinaman who lived near her home in Christchurch. She went to live with this Chinaman and they had one child, and apparently the Oriental, who was a clerk in a Chinese merchandise store, was good to her Seemingly, about the beginning of last year the association began to pall, and the woman took to drink. In October of last year, through another woman, she ■became associated with a man who would be before the court that day on a charge of theft. She left the Chinaman, her home, and her child. She drank heavily with the man to whom counsel had referred, and was drinking when she committed the theft. She had been brought under the influence of associates who had led her to crime. She ran away with the man who induced her to leave the Chinaman. She attempted to go back to the Chinaman, but he refused to accept her since she had left him for a white man. She was now serving a month's imprisonment on another charge. Accused was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence if called on inside three years-