EXTRAORDINARY CASE.

Evening Star, Issue 4108, 27 April 1876, Page 3

EXTRAORDINARY CASE.

An extraordinary case came before the Portland Bench on the 28th ult. A farmer at Coleraine prosecuted his son, John William Robertson,for larceny under the following singular circumstances ;—He found his son, who had deserted his home some time before, working on a contract at Hamilton, and tried to persuade him to return home, but he refused, only yielding at length to his mother’s earnest solicitations. The young prodigal remained at home for a week, during which time the fatted calf was killed, a new suit of clothes was obtained for him, and he had as much as L 7 or L 8 for pocket-money. The parents also offered to provide him with a wife, but this he refused, and went to work with his father at the Salt Pans, when, growing tired of the work, one morning, the 21st ult., he levanted, carrying with him a pair of blue blankets, valued at 18s. The father followed, and overtook his hopeful son, and besought him to return, but he refused. The father then laid an information against him for stealing the blankets; but the Bench discharged the prisoner on the ground that when the father overtook him he did not ask for the return of the brankets. It has since transpired, says the * Portland Guardian,” that the man Robertson senior and his wife maintain to be their son, who had been absent for thirteen months, turns out not to be Robertson at all, but Patrick Coady, a Geelong native, whose history is given with great distinctness in the records of the Portland Police Court. In February, 1874, Coady was arrested for disorderly conduct, and subsequently ho received twelve months for forgery. During the time he was in Portland gaol, Robertson, junior, whom the father and mother suppose Coady to be, left the parental residence at Coleraine. There can be no doubt that Coady is himself and not Robertson, as alleged by his supposed father, as he has all the marks of Coady, to wit: his left arm broken above the elbow, he has a scar over each eye, the height, age, color of the eyes, all correspond with the highly flattering description given of Coady in the ‘ Police Gazette.’ But on the other hand, Robertson piere alleges that his missing son had two scars over his eyes identical with those of Coady, and that the marks on his hand are identical.