INTO EVIL HANDS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3467, 22 April 1920, Page 5

INTO EVIL HANDS.

STAGE—S’VI‘RUCK GIRFXS FATE.

A “MAGICIAN’:’ ARRESTED.

A ratlier pitiful story of a stagestruck girl of seventeen having fallen into evil .hancls_, was told to the Auckland police on Monday. The complaint was that the girl had been inveiglecl. to a house in the city, where she went under the belief that a display of her talent in stage dress would possibly lead to a theatrical engagement, and that there she was violated. ‘As a result of inquiries into the complaint Detective De Norville, of Newton, and Plain-Clothes Constable Knigth made a search for a man who was descx-ibed as a theatrical artist who had at times appeared before the public as a “magician.” Yesterday afternoon they ‘accosted in‘ the street in the city a man named Franklin John Smith (24), and eventually arrested him on a charge of rape. When he was brought before Mr J. E. VVilson, S.M., yesvterday” named in the charge sheet as F. J. Smith, alias “Pit-Pot Smith,” -he was remanded for a week, a request for bail being refused.

The accused was recently a witness in a. case before the Court, where, under cross-examination, he de*s'cl-ilbed himself as an “illusionist, or magici.an.»” Asked if he had not taken down the public in Wellington some time ago, he denied the imputation. He added that he had. given illusion acts in‘ Chinese costume, but there had not been any question of cheating the public or anyone else beyond the usual limits of illusion acts ‘on the stage. He wished to make an explanation of how his name came to be associated with an incident in‘ Wellington referred. to as the “L 0 _ K-un incident,” but the- Magistrate remarked that he was not interested in -the matter, as it did not pertain to the case before the "Court, and the explanation was not carried further.