ABSTRACT
Question 35 Edna and Mavis are being tried in the Crown Court for theft. The case for the prosecution is that they are both guilty of shoplifting in the Ealing branch of Bromides, the well known chain of chemists. A store detective gives evidence and states that Edna and Mavis were together in the store. She says that Mavis was carrying a holdall and that she opened it to allow Edna to conceal in it a bottle of shampoo and a tin of talcum powder, the property of Bromides, for which neither defendant paid. Edna gives no evidence, but her counsel cross-examines the manager of the store, who is one of the prosecution witnesses, about a conviction that he had for indecent exposure when he was a student at university. Mavis gives evidence in her own defence and states that she was with Edna in the store, but was not herself involved in any shoplifting. She admits that when stopped outside the store she was carrying the holdall, but says that it belonged to Edna, who alone had been carrying it in the store.
