“IT’S NOT TRUE!”

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 20, 14 April 1927, Page 9

“IT’S NOT TRUE!”

GIRL DENIES STATEMENT MAN OF 65 CHARGED “I don’t know what I told the detective; I never read it . . . The detective took it down and I signed it. but it is not true . . . The detective is telling lies.” With this startling accusation in the Police Court tljis morning, a girl not yet fifteen denied the statement made to Detective McWhirter last month, in which she made a serious allegation against William Jenkins, a married man aged 65. It was stated in evidence that the girl’s father was dead, and that for the past IS months she had been working for Mrs. Jenkins at Glenfield as a general help. In a statement made to the detective in February she made a similar serious allegation against her own brother, who, it was said, is 18 years of age. Dr. Craven, of Birkenhead, told the court that he had called at the Jenkins house on March 19, the day the offence was alleged to have been committed. The girl was alone in the house, and told him that Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins were “down the paddock having a row—about her.” To the doctor she then made the same allegation against Jenkins that she had made to the detective. Later she denied this, the doctor said. Mr. J. J. Sullivan, who appeared for Jenkins, objected to the adraissahility of this part of Dr. Craven’s evidence, and his objection was noted. A statement made by the accused to Detective McWhirter was handed in and read out by the magistrate, Mr. Hunt. “The girl is not to be relied upon,” Mr. Sullivan observed. “There is no doubt about that,” Mr. Hunt agreed. It was mentioned, too, that since her interview with the detective, the girl was still living in the Jenkins's house. “The girl is still living in this man’s house?” asked Mr. Hunt in a shocked tone. “I never heard of such a foolish thing. I want her taken away from those surroundings at once.” “The evidence I’ve heard quite justifies me in taking her away,” he added, as lie made the order for the Child Welfare Department to take,the matter in hand. Jenkins, who pleaded not guilty and reserved his defence, was committed to the Supreme Court for trial, £l5O bail ’being allowed.