A SCANDALOUS CASE.

Waikato Independent, Volume V, Issue 324, 15 January 1907, Page 6

A SCANDALOUS CASE.

GIRL THREATENED WITH PISTOL AND POISON. A case, presenting some painful and unusual features came before Mr R. W. Dyer, S.M., in the Police Court, Auckland, on Friday, A young man named Frank Thomas was charged with using threats to a young woman, who feared that he would do her actual bodily harm, and asked that the defendant should be ordered to find sureties to keep the peace. In stating the case Sergeant Hendry said that the facts in the case were painful, and simply showed to what a contemptible state a man would allow himself to sink. The complainant was a highly respectable young lady, who met the defendant during a visit to Cambridge, Thomas represented himself to be a single man, and they ultimately became engaged. The lady received some information, which caused her to ask the defendant if he was married ; he denied it, and their friendship remained unbrobroken until the lady returned to Auckland. Further disquieting information resulted in the engagement being broken off, the lady returning the defendant all his presents. “ From that time the unfortunate girl has been threatened and bullied by this man,” continued Sergeant Hendry. He wrote her numerous letters, asking her to send him her jewellery, and on another occasion asking for 80s. One day he came to the establishment in which his former fiance was employed, and, producing a revolver, told her that “ this will do for both of us.” A bottle labelled “poison” was shown again, and a similar threat used. The painful part of the case was that Thomas was a married man, with a young family, living in Auckland. He was neglecting his home, terrifying this girl, and trying to extort money from her. She had been reduced to such a state that she was afraid to take a tram to get home, and had gone out by train with a friend. “All the girl wants is protection,” said the sergeant, “ and that she is entitled to ask.”

The complainant, in her evidence, reiterated the facts related by the sergeant and said that all she wanted was to be left alone. The defendant: I hope your Worship will take a lenient view of it. Mr Dyer : I certainly will not take a lenient view, I think you have acted the part of a perfect blackguard. The complainant asked his Worship to be lenient to Thomas, saying that she would trust to bis honour as a gentleman not to annoy her again. Sergeant Hendry : What honor can there be in a man who will write such letters to a girl ? The defendant said he had not spoken to the lady since • the day after New Year’s Day.

Mr Dyer: I am going to bind you over, and if you cannot find sureties you will go to gaol. That is, unless the police ask to withdraw the charge. _ Sergeant Hendry : I will not. I consider that if your Worship had power to flog it would not be too severe. Mr Dyer: It is one of the most contemptible cases I have heard of. For a married man to intimidate a girl as you have done, is the act of a blackguard. You will be bound over to keep the peace, and if you cannot find the sureties you will go to gaol—probably the best place for you, I will bind' you in your own recognisance of £SO and two sureties of £25 each.

Sergeant Hendry : I think the sureties should be more substantial in a case like this where a man takes revolvers and poison to intimidate girls. Mr Dyer: Very well. I will make it two sureties of £39. (To the accused): Anything more blackguardly I have never heard. You are a disgrace to manhood. The alternative, in default of the sureties being obtained, was fixed at three months’ imprisonment. Thomas was employed by the Borough Council as Clerk of Works on the drainage contract, and the young girl was employed as a waitress at.ne of the Cambridge hotels.