INCORRIGIBLE GIRL

Hokitika Guardian, 19 August 1933, Page 6

INCORRIGIBLE GIRL

fj .t j vy SCENE IN ENGLISH COURT. LIVELY PASSAGE TO CELLS. Some of the tricks associated with the famous Houdini are known also to a 14-year-old English schoolgirl, who forced a way out of locked windows, and defied all authority in a remand home to which she was sent. The despair of the .matron in that' home, she was remanded to Holloway Prison on a charge of wandering, and then, brought before the magistrates at Southend, becairie subsequently the central figure in a remarkable scene.

Ordered to a reformatory for throe years, at first the girl accepted the punishment without demur; hut, summoned as a witness in another case; was transformed into a tornado of violence; It was as much as three big policemen could .do to carry her struggl.iig and screaming to the cells, where her shouts penetrated to the street adjoining. So demure, composed and well-be-haved had the girl been in her remand appearances before the Bench that her final outburst was as unexpected as it was disconcerting. For instance, she had accepted without demur an order that she should go to Holloway Prison on remand, much, as the magistrates said ; as they disliked takirig this couise with a girl who was only 14.-

Originally the girl was ;before the Court on a charge of. wandering, having been fourid /with a 16-year-old companion in the frorit_garden of a house half an hour, after -midnight. She had ’ been, remanded to St. Monica’s Home, Southend, and when she appeared in court ; again ilinspectpr Harris - staled . the St. Monica authorities • could riot have her ,back As she.was beyond* control.

The clerk, however,- pointed out that as the institution was a Home Office place of detention, they must have her back —and hack she went. Within a few hours the girl had escaped,-'hut was caught by a policeman in the evening. Subsequently the matron of the home . told the Bench of the girl’s conduct there. The girl, she explained, was first admitted last November, when she wa s accompanied by her mother. Later she went to a relative at Croydon.

When the girl was sent to the home by the Bench she and another girl were verj’ trouble.some and tried to influence the other girls to be disobedient. ’ • “This girl,” said the matron, indi--oatirig 'accused, “attempted ’■ to get out of a window, but, was caught in the act by one of my assistants. I had that window fastened up with screws top and bottom, >rbut somehow she managed to get the screws out. “Therefore I had to get a carpenter to fasten up all the windows. While. I was out visiting the girl clambered over the, wall and got. awayAShe. was brought back next day, and has been generally since. -“When - she rpturped t f.rpm yw.alk. with the other girls she refused, to give up her walking shoes to the person in charge, and I liad, to with. lie); , in order to get them ahek. She created a terrible disturbance, arid people.living near complained of the noise. People even crilected iri the .street.. ... “Subsequently she went off again, but : the police brought...her back. She was put to bed and lirir. clothes. Wri.ie taken away and she was not allowed to have them again until just before she was brought to.court.”

On the evidence the' girl was committed to Holloway Prison on a brief remand, and then made her final appearance before the magistrates, who decided that she must go to a reformatory' for three, years. Uncomplainingly she'went out of court to the cells., A short time later she was brought back' to give evidence against a soldier from- Shoeburyness : who, she alleged, had assaulted her. The Bench dismissed this charge, and then the gill ffew into-a paroxysm of temper and rage. : “You give me three years’ and let him-off- scot free,” she screamed.. “If I could get hold of him I’d murder him.”

All attempts to persuade .the girl to go quietly from the court failed, and when three policemen seized her to carry her across the court to the cells again she struggled and kicked and screamed. Securely locked in a cell, the girl .persisted in shouts of defiance, and the noise could he plainly heard by pedestrians in the street outs.de.