LIFEBUOY AS "TROPHY”

Evening Star, Issue 21170, 2 August 1932, Page 13

LIFEBUOY AS "TROPHY”

UNDERGRADUATE'S PRANK A warning that undergraduates would not be allowed to do just as they pleased in the town was given by tho magistrates at Oxford Police Court recently, when they fined Albert Idris John Williams (21), of Keble College, £3 for damaging a lifebuoy. The original charge of stealing it was reduced. Defendant pleaded guilty. It was stated that, as a result of complaints of lifebuoys being stolen from the riverside, three having been taken in six weeks, a detective visited Williams’s rooms at the college and found a lifebuoy hanging on the' wall over the manteljjiece. When questioned about it Williams said; “ Oh, hell, do you think it is fair? I suppose being found in possession amounts to stealing it. What shall I get for it? A couple of quid or something.” At the police station ho declared: ” It is a recognised thing to get a few trophies to take down with one at tho end of the term. 1 saw it hanging there, thought it would be a good thing, and pinched it.” The chief constable said it was “ a pretty low-down thing ” when undergraduates took lifebuoys which were placed at spots near the river where there was considerable danger. “If they are after trophies,” ho added, “ lifebuoys should bo the last things they should take.” Mr Edridge, for Williams, said his client regretted tho incident and could only plead that he did it in the exuberance of the moment. It was a foolish and thoughtless thing to do, but tho lifebuoy was taken during Eight Week, which was traditionally associated with the spirit of exuberance. * Williams was going up next year to take his diploma of education, and Mr Edridge appealed to the Bench not to record a conviction. The Chairman (Alderman W. Stobie) said that fun was all right in its way, but undergraduates were going too far. Addressing Williams, he added: 11 If there had been an accident at the spot from which you took this lifebuoy you might have found yourself on a very serious charge.” Defendant was ordered to pay 10s damages in addition to tho fine.