"BAD LOT"

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20927, 5 January 1938, Page 5

"BAD LOT"

PREYED ON WOMEN LONDON, December 10. “Do we want to see him again? We would rather lynch him!” chorused three women as they left the. Old Bailey, where 35-year-old Edward Shrimpton, a painter, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for bigamy. He “married” two of the women and obtained about £l4O from the third. Shrimpton posed as a policeman to one of his victims, to impress whom he frequently took the numbers of cars which were going at high speeds, saying that he would report them later. From the dock, Shrimpton, who pleaded guilty to bigamy and obtaining money by false pretences from the third woman, said, “Women have been my downfall.”

Mr Maxwell Turner, prosecuting, said that Shrimpton was married in October, 1929, and left his wife two months later after being cruel to her. In November, 1933, he met Miss Doris Phoebe Robbins, bigamously married her in February, 1934, and, after being cruel to her, left her three months later. Disarmed a Burglar At the beginning of this year he met Miss Emily Bairstow-Bairstow, and told her that, as a police officer, he had taken a revolver from a man who was trying to rob a bank. He had been offered a gold watch or a commendation which would enable him to join the Brighton Police Force. Miss Bairstow-Bairstow advised him to accept the commendation. The Common Serjeant, Mr Cecil Whitleley, K.C., sentencing Shrimpton, described him as a ‘‘thoroughly b&d lot,” adding: “You preyed on these unfortunate women.” The three women left the Court together. Miss Robbins said: “I had my doubts as to whether he was a policeman, and my brother tried to check up on him. It’s a wonder to me how he ever came to learn all the rules and regulations about the police force. He seemed to know them all.”