THERE's been a sad twist in my efforts to find a claimant for a 62-year-old marriage certificate found blowing in the wind on the streets of St Helens.

For the certificate, handed into the Star office by a well-meaning reader, had been among property stolen in a daylight raid on the Nutgrove home of 84-year-old widow Mary Plumbley.

Her name appears on the certificate along with that of her husband, Thomas, who died eight years ago.

They had been married in February, 1937 at Ravenhead St John's Church, and the stolen certificate has now been returned to Mary who has been in poor health and is still shaken by having been subjected to three recent robberies.

The marriage certificate had vanished along with other documents and £350 in savings after a gang of three had conned their way into Mary's home.

IF those three rats are ever brought before the court, I sincerely hope that the magistrates come down on them like a ton of bricks.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.