SUPER-CRIMINAL AT 27.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2222, 4 January 1921, Page 1

SUPER-CRIMINAL AT 27.

: WELL-EDUCATED MAN. VICTIMS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY. An astonishing record, filling- 18 type-written pages, of a plausible young man’s criminal escapades during the last nine years was read, last month in Sheffield Police Court. The prisoner yas Norman Chas. Boddington, 27, a University-train-ed civil and mining engineer, at present serving a term of penal servitude at Winchester. He pleaded guilty to converting to his own nsc a motor-cycle value £SO, and asked to have taken into consideration all other outstanding charges, so that he may leave pri- j son with a clean sheet. It was in cultured accents that he addressed the Bench. His history had been forwarded -to the Court from Scotland Yard. Reading this, Mr Wing (the prosecuting solicitor) said the prisoner obtained a position as resident engineer in Mexico. Returning to England at the end of 1911, he called upon a woman at Leamington and induced her to lend him £350 and £l5O worth of jewellery, with which lie absconded. twice a deserter. lie went to New York as Captain Darreneourl, and was arrested by* the New York Police. In 1913 lie enlisted in the 4th Dragoon Guards. He deserted a month later, stealing and taking with him a Gladstone bag. He then-went to Portsmouth, and was subsequently arrested and sentenced Ip 18 months' hard labour for stealing a motor car. Jle was discharged in 191;.), and again enlisted, this time in the Royal fusiliers. lie deserted, and it was afterwards found that lie had taken various small sums of money. lie was next at Oxford, where he bought a second-hand motor car for £BO .1 Os, and gave a cheque for that amount. Subsequently he visited Worcester and Bristol, as Lieut. Mannering, of the Australian Light Horse, representing tlml he hail been wounded. POSED AS BISHOP'S COUSIN. Next he went to Plymouth, where he signed the visitor’s book a> the “lion. Roy Napier," Indian Light Horse, and slated lie was sou of the Governor-General of India, and grandson, of Admiral Napier. He took the whole of the house, and the proprietress gave till the other boarders notice to leave. in October, 1.91.5, he was sentenced to two periods of five years penal servitude on charges of forgery and obtaining goods by false pretences. In October, 19.19, he became very friendly with a Dundee family. He passed as a cousin of the Bishop of London, and he was introduced to a well-known Edinburgh family, subsequently becoming engaged to tI.V only daughter. The couple went to a jeweller's shop and selected six rings, valued at £1,094. Prisoner got possession of the rings in Edinburgh, and absconded. He did not marry the Edinburgh girl. After having obtained various sums of money and articles at Glasgow, Newcastle and Dublin,'lie forwarded to a Dublin firm a packet of diamonds, for which he obtained £l9O. lie represented .he had received them from the Governor of Bombay. MARRIED IN FALSE NAME. lie was next beard of at Llangollen, where he met a voting woman and in a false name went through the marriage ceremony and lived with her. After having posed as a staff captain of the Egyptian Army at Windsor, he went to Woodhall, Spa and Horncasflc, where he stayed its Major C. H. Goodwin. It was later found that he had been on familiar terms with a doctor’s wife in London. Confronted by the doctor, the wife confessed to an infatuation for Boddington, and said he had induced her to guarantee a cheque for £l5O. When finally arrested he was found to have in his possession receipted hotel hills amounting to £370, nine cheque-books on different hanks, and two rubber-stamps bearing"the following: “London City and Midland Bank, Limited", Llangollen, manager," Aided by his education, training good address and audacity, lie lin'd obtained money and goods valued at £3,273, victimised hotel arid hoard-ing-house'keepers, and callously blighted the happiness of at least three people. He was committed'for trial to the assizes. „