Captured: Portraits of Crime 1870-1930 - Flipbook - Page 52
18 9 3
B AT H U R S T
GAO L
D O N ’ T T E L L M Y FAT H E R
Christopher Flynn
and John Roac h
STEALING
Christopher Flynn, an 11 year old school boy from Hill End,
and John Roach, a 14 year old boy with no trade or occupation
from Sofala, were each photographed at Bathurst Gaol on
6 March 1893.
On 14 February 1893 Flynn and Roach appeared at Sofala
Police Court charged with stealing from the home of Miss Helen
Nicholson. They were committed to stand trial in the
forthcoming Circuit Court and refused bail. In the same
sitting, they were sentenced to two months and fourteen days
hard labour for entering a shop and stealing £4/10s. A third
charge of ‘stealing from a Chinaman’ was withdrawn.
At Bathurst Circuit Court on 18 April 1893, Flynn and
Roach stood trial accused of stealing money and a gold ring
from the Sofala home of Miss Nicholson. The Court heard that on
5 February Miss Nicholson had returned to her house to find Flynn
and Roach in the front room and the back window open. Surprised
at her appearance, Flynn scarpered into a bedroom and hid under
the bed. Roach remained in the front room. Miss Nicholson
checked the vase on the chimney piece in the dining room where
she normally kept her money to find £5 missing. Confronted by
Miss Nicholson, Roach handed over £2 — which he said Flynn had
given him — and Flynn retrieved the remaining £3 from under the
bed. Roach pleaded “don’t tell my father or he’ll beat me”. In
Court, Miss Nicholson said that she realised later that a gold
ring was missing from the bedroom where Flynn had hidden, and
she reported this to police. It was returned to her the next day
by Roach’s father. In statements tended to Court, Roach claimed
that, “I only got the ring”, while Flynn said, “I never got the
money. She got it from the bedroom”.
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