BLACKMAIL BY A WOMAN

Taranaki Daily News, 17 December 1926, Page 15 (Supplement)

BLACKMAIL BY A WOMAN

FOUR YEARS’ PENAL SERVITUDE. f At Lincoln Assizes Charles Esberger k (54) and his wife, Rachael Mary Esberger (30), servants' registry agents, of Lincoln, were indicted for demanding money by menaces from a farmer aged 73, living between Lincoln and Nottingham. j Charles Esberger pleaded not guilty, . find Raeliael Esberger guilty. She

( sobbed as she was taken below.. ; Mr Justice Talbot suggested that i the Press should’ refrain from pulii lishing the name of- the farmer. v Mr A. M. Lyons, prosecuting, said that about September of last year the /ai'fties made an appointment to go to the registry office about a servant". The allegation was that oil that occasion' there were compromising relations between Mrs Esberger and him. From that time a systematic course of obtaining money by menaces was pursued against the old man. The sum of £lO5 was paid by the farmer, and _ a further £lOO was demanded, but lie ' refused to pay any more. I The farmer, In evidence, said lie had Mown the Esbergcrs for a long ; time and had done business with them for 20 years". He went there in September of last year, and was in the Muse for about half an hour.. At first he was in the kitchen,- and he had seme conversation- with Mrs Esberger. I “She put her arm around my head,” he continued, “and I thought she had duped me.” Esberger’s Denial®. I Charles Esberger, in the witnessbox, said —■ I “I have ho knowledge.of the letters or the cheques, or where, the money came from. I did not know that my wife had a banking account until the end Of January of this year. When I saw the prosecutor in May I shook hands with him. I could hot have done that if, I had. been guilty of this

dirty trick. Wli.eil the chargtj came 1 was taken by storm and I did not know whether I was on my head be ffiy heels.” He said the letters wfcie a good imitation of his handwriting. Mr Lyons: Have you cyfcr known of anyone imitating your handwriting? I Esberger: Well, I have to give my Wife away—it wits her. Esberger said his wife could write With both hands. i When he asked his Wife Where the money was coming from for her banking account she told him to mind his Own business. I “I had good reason to believe,” he I Went oh, “that tile bank account was hot built up honestly.” The jury compared the writing of Charles Esberger in the registry books and the writing in the letters and found him not guilty. ■ Rachael Esberger, who had been Iwfore the court before, once for the neglect of her children, wag ordered four years' penal servitude,