“A DESPICABLE CHARACTER”

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 131, 2 March 1928, Page 16

“A DESPICABLE CHARACTER”

HUSBAND BLAMES WIFE FOR THEFT. Dominion Special Service. Dunedin, February 29. Ronald Bertie Moher and his wife, Ethel Jane Moher, figured largely in the Magistrate’s Court this morning in answer to two charges of theft, alleged to have been committed jointly. Owing to the peculiar conditions under which each tried to lay evidence against the other in the first place, they were charged with stealing on February 14 a quantity of cutlery, valued at £2, from the house of Charles Samuel Hunt, and on February 15 they were stated to have stolen from William Henry Armstrong, a fur, valued at £3 17s. 6d. Further, the male accused was charged with stealing a quantity of goods worth £3 2s. 7d. from Dorothy Tosh. Before the charges were heard, Ethel Janes Moher was granted an application for a separation and maintenance older against her husband. In each of the theft charges both accused pleaded not guilty in respect to the first charge of theft. The Magistrate said there was no question which accused stole the cutlery, and in the case of the fur it seemed to be just one person’s word against the other. While not saying that the female accused did take the fur, it was an article which made an appeal to a woman. The goods would be returned. His Worship added that the two joint charges threw much light on that of the theft from Mrs. Tosh. The male accused was worthless, one of the most despicable characters he ever had to deal with, because of the way in which he laid evidence against his wife. On each charge the male accused was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment with hard labour, the sentences to be concurrent. The charges against the wife were dismissed.