MISSING PEARLS

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20726, 9 February 1939, Page 13

MISSING PEARLS

YOUNG GIRL ACQUITTED SUPREME COURT EVIDENCE (Special to Times) AUCKLAND, Thursday A verdict of not guilty was returned by the jury in the Supreme Court yesterday in the case in which Elizabeth Ellen*Goodhue (19) was charged with stealing a pearl necklace insured for £2GS, the property of Lady Allen, wife of Sir Stephen Allen. The theft was alleged to have taken place on August 17 at the Mater Miserlcordiae Hospital, where Lady Allen was a patient. Lady Allen said when s he went into the hospital she had two strings of pearls with her, one genuine and one cultured, which were not so valuable. When she left she recovered the cultured pearls but not the genuine ones. There were 193 pearls in the- genuine string, which was insured for £265, but was worth considerably more. Threw Them In Fire Albert Lawrence Bailey, tram conductor said accused was a fre<juent visitor to his home last year. On an occasion early in September she was wearing a string of pearls. When she was playing with them the string broke and she got annoyed and threw them in the fire. Accused in evidence said she had been away from home since she was 14, and had occupied positions of trust. She took Lady Allen’s necklace to wear to a dance, intending to put it back next day. She was not on duty that day, however, and that evening she went to Bailey’s place wearing the pearls. She never made any statement that she thought the pearls valuable. Bailey annoyed her over something, added accused. The string of the necklace broke, and she picked up the pearls and threw them in the fire. Mrs Bailey picked up some of them, but witness did not retain any. She never had any intention to keeping the pearls for herself.