WOMAN WITH A DOUBLE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9133, 30 April 1908, Page 7

WOMAN WITH A DOUBLE.

WRONG PERSON ACCUSED. At Clerkenwell Sessions, before Mr R. Wallace, K.C., Ethel Rugby, aged 34, married, a woman of superior education, was indicted for stealing jewellery valued at £l6O from London shops during 1805-G. Counsel stated that accused called at shops aud asked to see various goods. When she had gone rings, etc., were missed. On January Bth two police officers arrested her at a public hall in the neighbourhood of Twickenham, where she was taking part in a philanthropic concert. The prisoner sang in the name of “Miss Morfa Hughes. ’’ She was a married woman, whoso name, according to counsel, was Laura Margaret Bugby, and she lived with her husband in'Twickenham. When arrested the accused said—“i have never stolen anything in my life. It muse be that woman for whom I have been mistaken for such a long time past. It is absurd to say such a tiling of me. I never buy jewellery and I have not been in a jeweller’s shop in London for years. ’’ The prisoner was emphatic, continued counsel, that there was a woman so exactly like her that one day, while the prisoner was walking through Regent’s Park, a man came up to her and addressed her, saying, “Why did not you come home last night?’’ He had mistaken her for his own wife —a matter about which, counsel added, most husbands were reasonably certain. The defence was that the case was one of mistaken identity. “If the prai.oner is not the woman,’’ said counsel, “it is surely one of the most remarkable coincidences disclosed in a court of justice. ’ ’ At the close of the evidence a verdict of “not guilty’’ was returned.