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Snuffed goat gets up burglars' noses

The drug-fuelled burglars had ransacked the house, stealing antique furniture, jewellery, electrical equipment and dinner sets. They also grabbed a wooden box containing a powder they thought might be a drug.

So they began sniffing it, until one of them, Elizabeth Kniese, suspected that the box contained "the remains of someone". She was almost right. They were the ashes of the family's pet goat.

In the County Court yesterday, the prosecutor, Sebastian Reid, said the box was taken by the gang during the burglary on January 8 because it was believed it "contained drugs of some description".

Kniese, 37, pleaded guilty in Melbourne yesterday to charges of burglary and theft over the incident at Menzies Bay, in the city's outer south-east, and to identical charges involving a house last December.

Her counsel, Simon Moglia, said Kniese's multifaceted and compulsive drug use stemmed from her "terrible" experiences as a parentless child and teenager in foster care.

Mr Moglia said Kniese, who has been in custody since her arrest in March, had low self-esteem but felt she had achieved something by raising a teenage son.

Kniese, who had not identified her co-offenders out of fear, had not offended for eight years until 2002, when she got a suspended sentence that she had now breached, he said.

She will be sentenced on July 23.

Posted by thinkum at July 2, 2004 02:43 PM