FIRST VATICAN COURT CASE
THIEF SENTENCED TO GAOL. REMOVED COINS FROM ALMS BOX. By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright. London, Jan. 29.. Giuseppe Paolis, caught extracting coins from an alms box at St. Peters with a piece of whalebone smeared with bird lime, was the first offender to be tried by the Vatican Court, a message from Vatican City says. He obviously enjoyed the sensation until a - sentence of three months’ impri,so;unen‘t -caused his smiles to fade. The court house had not been erected and the court was held in a small room in the Papal gendarmerie barracks. A crucifix surmounted the Pope’s pottrait hung behind the president’s chair. The president, judges and counsel were arrayed, in rich black velvet togas limld with crimson. The prisoner, a small thin man, was escorted by two magnificent gendarmes. The judges did not heed the defending counsel’s plea that the Italian law, which prescribed three months’ imprisonment for the offence, should be mitigated by canonical mercy. . The court ordered that the whalebone It'd
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Taranaki Daily News, 31 January 1930, Page 11
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168FIRST VATICAN COURT CASE Taranaki Daily News, 31 January 1930, Page 11
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