CAUTION TO YOUNG WOMEN.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1065, 25 April 1882, Page 4

CAUTION TO YOUNG WOMEN.

At Malborough Street police-court, Henry Cook, a middle aged man, was brought up on remand, charged with having obtained goods and money by fraud. The method adopted by the prisoner appeared to be to promise ; marriage to ladies’ maids and young I women of the same position in life, , and then obtain from the money and I valuables, under the pretence of some temporary embarrassment. His op- I eration seemed to have been of the most extensive character, and a crowd of some hundreds of persons, who could not obtain admittance remained outside the court during the afternoon. He was understood to exercise the profession of a dancing-master, and had acted master of ceremonies at the Horns Assembly-rooms Kensington. Miss Holley, who gave her evidence on the last occasion was re-called and under examination by Mr Abrahams, eaid that when she first metthe prisoner she asked him if he was married and he said no. A woman calling herself Mrs Cook had since called upon her, however and she now knew that he was a married man with six children. Mr George W. Ryder, assistant to his uncle, a jeweller in Bond-street, and Mr John West, assistant to Messrs Hancock, of the same street, testified to the prisoner having never been employed in their respective establishments. Mr Abrahams said that before entering further into the ease was only right for him to inform the magistrate that he would bring forward five cases, all of the same nature against the prisoner. His office was literally besieged by young women who had been victimised by him. From one he had obtained £45, from a second £22, from a third, £l7 and a gold chain, and from a fourth £3B, and from a fifth a watch. Catherine Parkinson, 25,Cleveland-streetFitzroy ■square, deposed the fact of the prisoner being the father of her child. During the month of November he brought her a watch and told her to pawn it. She did so and gave him the money, retaining the ticket herself. Under cross examination she said she did not question him as to the manner in which the watch came into his possession. Edwin Lake, pawnbroker’s assistant, produced the watch. Miss Holley recognised it as the one which she had lent to prisoner in order to have his photograph put in the back. Cross-examined by Mr Lewis, she asserted that the prisoner had accosted her on the occasion of their first meeting ; she bad not any •dislike to him, but she would not have met him again if it had not been that he pressed her so much. The prisoner was then committed for trial on the first charge and the second case was gone into. Miss Stone, lady’s maid testified as to having met the prisoner in April last, close to Paddington station at nine or half-past nine p.m. He accosted her, for she would never have spoken to him first. He said, ■“ Just going for a walk ?” and she replied, “ I am just going home.” they walked on together, and after having a discussion on religious matters she left him at Portland place. The prisoner said his name was Harry Pierce, and he had been in the employment of Messrs Ryder of Bond-street, as a working jeweller, for the last 17 years ; his master gave him £4 per week, and he made a good deal of money in overtime. After a few meetings he said, “ Look here; I intend making you my wife and she replied, “ 1 am very much astonished at your asking me such a question, as I know so little of you.” He said Mr Ryder was very glad to learn that he was about to be married, and added that so high a place did he occupy in his employer’s estimation that he frequently dined with him at Richmond. On one occasion he asked for her watch, in order to have his photograph put in it, but she said that would be a very peculiar place to have it, and at his suggestion she gave him a locket and chain instead. After receiving the locket he said he wanted her to do something for him. He had stood security for a friend and the loan office people had come down upon him for the money, so he wanted her to lend him £5. The next time she met him he asked for as much as she could let him have, and she then gave him £3, also giving four on a subsequent occasion, but she then began to see that she had acted foolishly, and gave him no more. She frequently asked for her locket and chain, but could not obtain them. By Mr Lewis: The witness said she felt sorry for him in his trouble, and, trusting in his representations, gave him the money. If she had known he was a married man with six children she would not have given him the money. A pawnbroker’s assistant produced the locket and chain, which the last witness identified, and said that to the best of his belief the prisoner was the man who pawned them. Detective Sergeant Bugsley deposed to arresting the prisoner on November 29. On being taken into custody he said “ Oh 1” but made no remark. Mr Abrahams bore testimony as to the exceoent manner in which the officer had done his duty, and said that it was entirely owing to his exertions that he wjyableto bring forward the large num* of cases now in his hands. The pw oner was committed for trial on that charge, and the third case was brought on. Lena Kenzi, a

German cook, said she knew the prisoner since the evening of September 10 last, when she met him close to the Marble Arch. He asked her where she was going, and she said .home.

They walked on together, and he told her he had worked at the establishment of Messrs. Pike, in Bond-s'reet, for the last 14 years, adding that his master wished him to get married. He would have lodgings, coals, and gas free. His aunt had recently died and left him some money and shares in a railway company. She asked him why he had not married before, and he said because he could not find any one to suit him, but she was just the woman he wanted; he liked her very much, and wanted herself and not her money. He showed her the shop where he said he worked, and, knockihg at the back door, remarked, “That is where I sleep.” She expressed a wish to go in, but he said “ No, I have the key, but we won’t go in.” He induced her to give him her watch and chain, on the pretence of having affixed to it a locket which had been left to him by his aunt. The pawnbroker, who expressed a belief that Cook was the man who had pledged it, produced the watch and chain, which the last witness identified. The case was committed for trial.