THEFT OF COAL

Evening Star, Issue 20585, 10 September 1930, Page 7

THEFT OF COAL

GIRL'S FATHER BLAMED “ I do not suppose there is anybody who has listened to this case who has not the greatest possible contempt for your conduct. You are a perfectly inhuman monster to elect that your child should be tried by jury and made a criminal.” These words were addressed to a Hanlev father by . the Recorder (Sir Reginald Coventry, K.C.), at Stoke-on-Trent City Quarter Seasons, when an eleyen-year-old schoolgirl was charged with stealing threepennyworth of coal. The jury found the child guilty, and the Recorder discharged her and placed her under the care of a woman probation officer for three years. The Recorder explained to the jury at the opening of the case that the father, according to the law, had the right to elect that the child should be tried by jury. The girl was brought up last February before the. Potteries Stipendiary Magistrate at a children’s court, but the lather insisted that the case should be sent to the Quarter Sessions. The result was that in ordinary circumstances the child would have to stand in the dock. He was taking the responsibility, however, of placing the child in another part of the court away from the dock. Evidence was then given by a watchman in the employ of the Iron, Steel, and Coal Company that he saw the girl take several pieces of coal from a motor lorry on the company’s premises, place them in a bucket, and take them to her home. The father, in evidence, said the reason he . insisted that ris daughter should be tried at the Quarter Sessions was that he thought she would not get a fair trial before the Stipendiary Magistrate. “ I have lost similar cases in the Stipendiary Court before,” he added. Detective-constable Poole said that the defendant was one of eight children, and was regarded as being of weak intellect. The father, the mother, and several of the children had all been convicted for stealing coal. The Recorder, addressing the father, said; “If you had allowed your child to bo tried in the Children’s Court ho conviction would have been recorded against her. There is nobody in this court who blames the child for what she did. The blame is entirely yours. I have no hesitation in saying that you and your wife for years have encouraged your children to go out and steal coal. You have Jed a life of crime yourself and have determined that your children shall follow you. 1 have powers under the Act to punish you. and the order of the court is that you pay the costs of the prosecution to the extent of £5. If you interfere in any way with the probation officer in trying to assist the girl to lead a decent life you will hear of it.”