WAS KEANE TOO KEEN?

NZ Truth, Issue 1108, 24 February 1927, Page 7

WAS KEANE TOO KEEN?

Theft Charge Follows Visit To His Wife's Shop

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Auckland Representative.) "MOW is my chance to get those letters she stole from me I M William Bernard Keane was standing m Ponsonby Road, Auckland, when— seeing his wife leave her shop some little way up the road and board a tram—he is alleged to have made this significant remark. -

fROM the story which George Searle, a carrier, told Magy^rrate McKean • m the Auckland Magistrate's • Court last . week, when Keane was charged with stealing a box containing docuuients and papers and £60 m cash frorii his wife, Emma Blanche Keane, it would appear ;

that William Bernard lost no time m acting upon his lesolve. Searle said he. went j along to Mrs. Keant's I furniture shop, and waited outside while Keane went m. > From the fact that the Keanes carried on separate business premises and the husband's alleged desire to get hold of "those letters," it is apparent that relations between them were somewhat strained. As a matter of fact it is stated that divorce proceedings were m the air. When Emma Keane stepped into the box to give evidence concerning the theft, Counsel Dickson made a forfnal /objection on the ground of the . inadmissibility of a wife's evidence against her husband. When the objection had been noted Emma went on with her story. She said that she and, William Bernard had been separated by mutual consent for twelve months. When she left her shop about x 2 p.m. on •February 4, the tin trunk containing cash, letters and some clothes was m her bedroom. V Lawyer Dickson had many questions to ask regarding the moneyhow it was made up, where it had been obtained and so on. She said that there was one £20 note, two, tens, and ten single' notes. '

. When counsel had finished Doris Blanche, the daughter, commenced the tale of her father's "visit to the shop. "Father came' into the diningroom and asked if I was alone. | said I was and he said: 'I'm going to take your mother's tin box.' I told him he wasn't to. ' " "He" went to go upstairs and^ I tried to stop him. I got on .the "stairs and he pushed me of£ I -went out, into the kitchen and got a 'stockwhip. „ "When I got back into the diningroom father came down and I hit at him with the whip. We struggled and I said: Til go for the police.' ; "He said if i .wasn't quiet he'd .get someone outside to come and -/hold inc. I'm not sure exactly what happened

then, but he hit me and the next thins I remember he was upstairs. "He started to go downstairs. I was at the' back of him. I pushed him and he turned round as if he was going to hit me,' I said: /Don't you dare to!* "As he went down the rest of •' the stairs I pushed him again. •

He picked up the box under his arm and ran out of the 6hop* He put it Jn a carrier's cart, got m and drove up Pensonby Road. I knew there was £60 In the . box," she concluded. To Lawyer Dickson she remarked: "I knew he went there to get any evidence he could m connection with the divorce < case." Police Sergeant Hammond told the Court thai when., he went along to Keane's shop to inquire about the box — Emma having lost no time m communicating with the^ police on discovering her"~ loss later ln the afternoon — Keane said that he had taken It from his wife's shop, brought It '• home and broken it open, to take out some papers which his wife had stolen from him some time before. "I then asked him.'-'--about the £60," the sergeant said. "He said: . •Tou mean £6.' I asked him about the letters, ; and he said he'd sent > them by a messenger to his solicitors. "On searching the accused I found he had £42/5/3 on him. There : was only one £5 no^e, .'■■>• the rest were singles and : ten shillings. There were ho £10 or £20 .notes. "The accused said that r George Searle was present and saw him count the money." . Cross- examined- by . counsel, the sergeant" said Keane had invited him. to .

search the house and to make inquiries m the vicinity, which he did, but without' discovering anything. When the evidence had been heard .'.-: Lawyer Dickson submitted /that there was no case to answer before a jury. "I suggest that the wife's evidence is -most unsatisfactory m the extreme," counsel said, "and the wife and daughter contradict each other on how much, money was paid m. "It is a divided home, the. eon living with the father^ *nd the daughter with the mother. I suggest there was no criminal intent." Magistrate McKean disagreed,, how- ;': -ever, and committed Keane -to the .-; Supreme Court for trial, allowing bail , of £100 with a similar surety.