THEFT FROM DWELLING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 272, 17 November 1943, Page 3

THEFT FROM DWELLING

HOW ACCUSED DISPOSED OF STOLEN JEWELLERY YOUNG MAN .FOR SENTENCE “I do not know her name, but she was about 22 and appeared to be a peroxide blonde.” In this way, lan Keitli McKane, aged 23, in a statement to the police, described a girt he had met at a dance hall at Wellington early in May, and to whom he had given a watch stolen in Wanganui last April. Accused, who appeared before Mr. J. H. Salmon, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court, Wanganui, yesterday, charged lyith the theft of money and jewellery, valued at £75 7s 6d from a dwelling, also stated that before leaving Wanganui he played snooker for £1 a game with a man in a billiard saloon, but as he had only £2 in his possession gave him a ring, valued at £54. as security. The statement was made in Dunedin, and when he appeared in Wanganui yesterday McKane pleaded guilty and was committed to the Supreme Court, Wellington, for sentence on November 23. In the meantime he is to appear at Hastings on a charge of breaking, entering and theft from a dwelling there on August

Detective-Sergeant J. J. Murray, who prosecuted, said accused was serving a sentence in a South Island prison and had been brought to Wanganui under escort to answer the present charge. Mrs. Catherine Marshall, widow, living in Bell Street, Wanganui, said that on Sunday, April 18, 1943, witness and her daughter were out in the earlier part of the evening. When they returned at 7 p.m. witness had a handbag which she left on her bed. In addition to papers the bag contained a seven-stone diamond ring, a wedding ring, a diamond and sapphire ring, and a lady’s watch, the total value being about £74. The jewellery had been given to her by her late husband, witness said.

/My daughter and I went to the kitchen in the back of the house until we retired about 9.30 p.m.,” said witness. “My daughter then had occasion to get something from my bag, hut it was missing and we reported the matter to the police. Next, day my bag was returned to me by a woman who had found it abandoned in Beil Street.

Witness said that the front door of the house was unlocked while she and her daughter were out earlier in the evening. Witness identified a diamond cluster ring, produced in Court, as her property. The ring was worth £54.

“I know the accused, who boarded at my place for a fortnight a short time before the theft was committed,” added the witness.

Corroborative evidence was given bv Florence Marshall, daughter of the previous witness. Miss Marshall said that while sue and her mother were listening to the radio she heard the front door open, but assumed it was one of the boarders. Witness later discoverd that, in addition to her mother’s bag, her own purse containing £1 7s 6d was missing. Detective-Sergeant Murray said that he investigated the theft in company with Constable C. Dudley. Witness produced a cluster ring which was recovered from a man in Wanganui.’ Accused was arrested in Dunedin on November 15, and on being returned to Wanganui accused admitted the truth of a statement signed by him admitting the theft of Mrs. Marshall s property. In his statement accused said that he had taken the gold watch, a weddmg ring, and a diamond cluster ring from Mrs Marshall’s bag, which he nad later thrown away, together with Miss Marshall’s purse.