LOVE WITHOUT THE COTTAGE.

Grey River Argus, 26 February 1927, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOVE WITHOUT THE COTTAGE.

HUSBAND STEALS TO PROVIDE HOME. ROBBED WO Al AN OFFERS TO AID HIM. How a young husband stole money to provide a home for the girl he had married secretly, was told at the Melbourne Court when Frederick James Barnes, 24, was charged with Hie theft of £5l 12/9. Barnes was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment, the sentence being suspended on his entering into a bond to be of good behaviour for two years. Grace Valentine Boucher, proprietress of Cratliie House private hospital, East cibourne, said she left £5l 12/9 in a linen-press on January 6. Next morning she found the door of the press had been forced and the money stolen. Barnes had been at the hospital for 16 months as a houseboy and she had always found him honest. He had received 27/- a week and keep, and if it were not for the other employees she would be willing to take him back. If he was given a chance, she would give the couple £2O to start them off. Detective Gooden said Barnes admitted the theft and too him to where he, had hidden the money. In a statement Barnes said he had taken the money to go to Sydney the following week. “He had been keeping company witb ( a young girl and they were married privately,” added Gooden. “He did not have enough money to make a homo for her and she had been working as well. She had asked him to provide a home for her and I think that is why he took the money.”