SHE HAD A NERVE

NZ Truth, Issue 1153, 5 January 1928, Page 6

SHE HAD A NERVE

Smoked Cigarettes In

Bedroom Raid

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special SydneyRep.) \f you believe her husband, Winnie Mears is a woman of surprising nerve. Caught in her night attire in a room with another man, she said to the invading detectives: "Have you a cigarette?" Given one, she lighted it and got back into bed, puffed a few puffs and remarked: "I suppose you haven't got anything to drink with you?" AND, said a detective to the divorce judge in Sydney, the strange man then also got into bed! The husband, James Mears, a big New Zealander, gave this piece of domestic history to Judge Davidson last week when he asked that his unfaith- | ful wife be divorced. Neither the wife nor the man — Lionel Thomas — appeared to deny the story, and the judge gave Mears what he asked for. A feature of the case was the tale of a raid made by John Henry Dykes, of the Sydney Night Patrol, who has figured in three bedroom raids over the last fortnight. Mears said that he and Winnie were married in Auckland in April, 1913, and she lived with him and their three children at Enfield up till 1921, when she began to absent herself from home on various pretexts. On one occasion she dressed herself up and told him almost tearfully that she was going along to see a dear woman friend and her poor husband, who were "down with . 'flu." Suspicious, he drifted down to the sick friends' home to inquire as to their condition. He found them in robust health and returned home to reflect. Winnie came in late and James tactfully inquired about 'the state of the sick couple. "How are your sick friends?" he asked. "Very bad, indeed!" replied Winnie tearfully, "I had to remain / and cook tea for them." Then the circus began and Winnie left. Later, he received an anonymous letter suggesting that he watch the house in Lincoln Street, Stanmore, where his wife lived. SURPRISED He did. What he saw made him interview Dykes, who arranged a surprise party by night. The raiders entered by a raised window on a dark, rainy night. But James knocked a book off a sewing machine just inside the room, and immediately the wife, arrayed in night attire, rushed from her bed and slammed down the . window on the neck of Dykes' assistant as he was.crawling through, A rush was made to the bedroom from which the wife came. And they found Lionel Thomas in his pyjamas. "It is a fair catch," he acknowledged, and the excited Winnie then calmed down. "I'll stick to Thomas," she declared, "if you divorce me!" She sat down on the side of the bed beside Thomas. Dykes' assistant produced a packet of cigarettes and lit one, while James and Dykes gathered up a portmanteau full of Thomas' clothes," >l letters and two bank-books. "You might hand 'em round!" said Winnie, eyeing the cigarettes. She helped herself, lit up, and watched the collection of exhibits being made. It was a cold night. Winnie' re-) marked this fact and got under the bed-clothes, where she continued to smoke. \ "Have you got anything to drink with you?" she asked the raiders. But not a drop had they. "My wife was very brazen all through!" related the husband. Dykes confirmed the story and said that Thomas deliberately got back into bed. The judge was satisfied.