Thieving head faces jail
The headteacher convicted of stealing £500,000 from her school has been remanded in custody until September.
Former nun Colleen McCabe, 50, appeared at Greenwich Magistrates Court on Saturday morning and was remanded into custody until today, spending the weekend in Holloway jail.
McCabe failed to turn up to Southwark Crown Court on Friday to be sentenced and the court heard this weekend that she had never intended to attend.
Reading from medical reports, District Judge Michael Kelly said McCabe had already told her psychiatrist she would not turn up for sentencing.
After she failed to appear in court she was taken by ambulance from her home in Sidcup to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich.
Police arrested her on Friday evening and she spent the night in cells at Plumstead police station in south London, before appearing at Greenwich on Saturday.
The former headteacher appeared in court today and was remanded into custody until September 1st, when she will be sentenced at a crown court hearing.
McCabe used money stolen from St John Rigby College, a 1,100 pupil state-funded Roman Catholic school in West Wickham, south-east London, to fund lavish shopping trips, dinners and holidays.
She was found guilty in July of 11 sample counts of theft and six of deception.
Her deception was only spotted when a council audit of the school accounts was carried out. The school struggled to find money for cleaners and new books as McCabe carried out her spending spree.
