CRIMES AND OFFENCES.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14457, 1 June 1911, Page 5

CRIMES AND OFFENCES.

AN EDINBURGH SENSATION. Press Association—Bv Tel,—Copyright, LONDON, May 30. Great interest is being taken in the trial of Lieut. Cameron and his wife, of Edinburgh, on a' charge of endeavouring to obtain insurance money by misrepresentation. Tlio insurance was 011 the safety of a pearl necklace valued at £7OOO. Mrs Cameron alleged that while she was looking in a shop window a man assaulted her and stole the necklace. Two servant girls sowro that no one was near Mrs Cameron when she said she was robbed of the necklace. A detective gave evidence that the theft from beneath a sealskin coat was impossible. The case was adjourned. The Crown suggests that the insurance was effected upon an imitation pearl necklace obtained on approval from a Regent Street jeweller. Amelia Blasen, a French maid, gave evidence that she posted letters at Cannes at the request of 'Ernestine Tenes, Mrs Cameron's maid. The Crown suggests that there 'were bogus letters from the mythical " Billy Walker," who is untraceable. letters tell a romantic story, •to the effect that the pearls were the price of Mrs Walker's shame, and that Walker gave them to Mrs Cameron at his daughters request.

Letters found in Lieutenant Cameron's flat, signed "Billy Walker," were read. The Solicitor-General remarked that these formed the foundation of the accusation of false representations to the insiiranco companies. In one letter the word "insurance" was commenced "en" instead of "in'." This was the same as Mrs Cameron's spelling.

Two masked burglars bound and gagged the postmistress at Lee green, Lewisliain, and robbed the office of £l5O.

Unknown persons stole £IOO,OOO worth of jewels from the Messina Cathedral. Greek brigands in the Olympia Range kidnapped a German archaeologist, Professor Edward Richter, after killing tho corporal of his escort but a gendarme escaped.

The Senate Tribunal sentenced General Reinbotj a former Governor of Moscow, to twelve months' imprisonment and the loss of his rights, for having misappropriated funds. His assistant, Korot-ki, was similarly sentenced. A woman, eking out a precarious livelihood in Paris, in making cigarettes from Government tobacco, thereby infringing the monopoly, was fined £4762, in default two years' imprisonment.

Tlie New South Wales report for the last year shows that tli-ere was an increase of 2607 arrests and summons euses, and an increase of twenty-nine desertions of wife and children.