Evidence Type: Newspaper Report
5 May 1843
SYDNEY QUARTER SESSIONS
WEDNESDAY, MAY 3.
The Court opened this morning at twelve o’clock, before the Chairman, W. M. MANNING, Esq., and JOHN CAMPBELL, Esq., J. P.
CATHERINE REDDINGTON was indicted for stealing a watch, the property of JOHN ALEXANDER DUTTON, and OWEN FINNEGAN was indicted for receiving the same.
Sergeant GRIFFITHS deposed that in March last, he took the male prisoner into custody, on suspicion of being a runaway, and found Mr. DUTTON’s watch upon him, which he said he had bought at Liverpool, but afterwards acknowledged having got from the prisoner REDDINGTON.
Mr. DUTTON, of Pitt-street, being sworn, stated that he lost the watch under very unpleasant circumstances; he had been spending the evening with some friends at the Liverpool Arms, and was returning home about eight o’clock, when he met the prisoner who had been a servant of his; she asked after Mrs. DUTTON and the children, and wanted to know if he would not treat her, upon which he went home with her; while at her house he believed he took his watch off his neck and placed it upon the table, he did not miss it till next morning, when he gave information to the police.
The prisoners cross-examined the witness with the intent of eliciting from him, an admission that he had given REDDINGTON the watch instead of money, but he positively denied having done so; although he acknowledged that from the state he was in at the time, he did not the next morning recollect where the house was situated, to which he accompanied her.
Mr. DICK’s coachman was next examined, to prove that the woman was on terms of intimacy with the male prisoner.
After the jury had been charged, one of them recalled Mr. DUTTON, who stated to the effect, that while the woman was in his service, she had conducted herself with propriety in the performance of her duties, and had not been suspected of theft. Guilty. REDDINGTON, six months in the Factory; FINNEGAN, who came out here a convict, and had been several times convicted since, three years in irons.
CITATION
Female Factory Online, (femalefactoryonline.org), “Law Report of CATHERINE REDDINGTON,” https://femalefactoryonline.org/law-reports/p18430505-3/, accessed [insert current date].
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