ROMANCE IN BURGLARY

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 968, 10 May 1930, Page 13

ROMANCE IN BURGLARY

WAITER WHO WOOED MOTHER AND DAUGHTER STORE BROKEN INTO Romance loomed prominently in a burglary case heard before Mr. Justice Avory at Bristol Assizes. It was suggested that a mother was jealous because the chief culprit had transferred his attentions from her to her daughter. In the dock were Theodore William Cuss, 35, waiter, and Beatrice Barrett, 16J, domestic servant. They were charged with having broken into a store at Ashton Keynes, near Swindon. The girl pleaded guilty, but Cuss, a smartlooking man, wearing horn-rimmed glasses, stood his trial before a jury. In the end he was convicted and, having a bad record, received a punishment of 20 months’ hard labour. The girl was bound over on consenting to go into a domestic training home for 12 months. The facts outlined by the prosecuting counsel disclosed a remarkable state of affairs. Cuss, in the name of Jack Fisher, had made the acquaintance of the girl’s mother, Mrs. Bea trice lies, at Uffington, in Berkshire, and when she removed to Broad Town, Wootton Bassett, he went to live at the house. Some time afterward a daughter, Beatrice, returned home from service. Cuss and Mrs. lies had bought a motorcycle, on which they used to go tor rides, but after the girl came on the scene Cuss took her out. One night there was a conversation as to the raising of the rent, and Cuss was alleged to have remarked that he was going out to get some money. He rode off with the girl and they were discovered by Constable Smith in the stores, which had been broken into, and a sack contained a number of articles gathered from the stock. The girl was arrested, but Cuss escaped. According to Mrs. lies, when he reached home after midnight he informed her that the girl had been “pinched.” Asked how it was he did not get “pinched,” he stated, “I ran away and the policeman followed me, but I got on the motor-cycle.” He was arrested by Inspector Mitchell the same morning when he was in bed. Mrs. lies admitted receiving &. letter from Cuss beginning, “My darling Beatrice” and ending, “Your always and ever loving Jack,” with crosses for kisses. Mr. B. Thomas, defending Cuss, asked: You were passing as prisoner’s wife? —No. You called yourself by his name? — No, he called himself by my name. So that people thought you were husband and wife? —Yes. Do you bear him any grudge?—Not that I am aware of. Is it true that you and he got on very well together until your daughter came home, and then you were jealous?—No. The Judge: Have you and prisoner been living as man and wife?—We have been living together, but not as man and wife. Was he, in view of the letter addressed to you in affectionate terms, your lover? —Yes. Inspector Mitchell repeated a conversation he overheard between prisoners in the cells at Swindon. In this, it was alleged, Cuss referred to Mrs. lies as “a rotter,” and the girl called her by an opprobrious name. Cuss was alleged to have prompted the girl to say that a stranger who gave her a lift on his cycle was responsible for the burglary, and this story he repeated in the witness-box. He stated that he used to take the mother about a lot before the daughter came home. Then there were quarrels, as the mother did not like his taking the girl out. The Judge: I see you wrote to both of them as “Your always and ever loving Jack.” You were just as loving to the mother as the daughter? It was stated that Cuss had been convicted of theft and bigamy, and while serving a sentence of 18 months in 1924 was removed to an asylum, where he remained two years. Afterwards he had 18 months at Reading for burglary.