COURT DRAMA

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21648, 8 May 1940, Page 8

COURT DRAMA

DOG-LOVERS SPEND £lOO TO SAVE PET

One hundred pounds spent on legal action. The result—Bingo, six-year-old mongrel dog condemned to die for sheep worrying, has been reprieved.

Bingo’s owners are Mr Thomas Needham, a Manchester solicitor, and his daughter, Miss Joyce Ashby Needham. They lived at in Derbyshire. Some time ago Bingo, accused of sheep-worrying, appeared in a local court. Two farmers said they saw him attack the sheep. z Bingo was ordered to be destroyed. Mistaken Identity Plea

Mr Needham appealed—on the grounds of mistaken identity. Later the appeal was considered at Derbyshire Quarter Sessions. Bingo was in the court-room. Mr Needham conducted Bingo’s case. Miss Needham sat anxiously watching. The Chairman, Mr H. St. John Raikes, K.C., gave his decision. He began, “The appeal will be dismissed, with costs. . . .” Miss Needham fainted. She was carried outside the court. Bingo ran after her, tugging with him the officer who held his lead.

He pawed her and licked her hand while she was recovering. But in the courts the chairman was continuing. . . . “but I shall vary the decision of the magistrates and order that the dog shall not be destroyed, but it must be kept under proper control.”

What had influenced him in his decision?

“To some extent,” he told the court, it was the fact that he was himself a great lover of dogs.