IN WHICH 9 YEAR OLD APPLE THIEVES WENT...TO COURT?

August 26th 1922

A mere three years into his policing career, and my great grandfather (at this time still a uniformed constable), was dealing with big, complex cases.

John Parker-Steel had found his apple trees, on his allotment at Manthorpe Road, quite bereft of apples. Luckily for him, but less luckily for the two 9 year olds, Special Constable Foster was cycling down the road just at the time of the apple-based larceny.

Giving chase, he caught up with one, but lost the other, waiting until PC Bramhall arrived to take over the case. The other boy ran off, amusingly chucking his ill-gotten fruit as he did so.

Having obtained the name of the co-accused, the constable paid a trip to his house, where his father asked the boy what he had been up to. "Pinching apples" was the honest (and entirely accurate) reply.

It's not possible to discern if the complainant was miserable, but we do know that he went to the trouble of calculating the likely loss for the court's attention - 2S. and 6d.

The boys were cautioned by the bench, and fined 3s.

Of course, these days the boys would never be prosecuted for this - at the age of just 9 they are under our age of criminal responsibility. In all, this case of apple pilfering appears to have had two constables and one sergeant in bringing the case to court. While I don't know the total cost of the court session or the wages of the officers, you'd have to say that some kind of restorative justice would definitely have saved everyone time and money!

#theft #youthjustice #1922 #specialconstable

IN OTHER NEWS: Local Amusements - "Hold your horses", a film being shown which shows the rise to power of an Irish Road Sweeper to Political Power.

ADVERT OF THE WEEK: Parker and Sons Bakers, Gonerby - "Cannot bake all the bread consumed in Grantham and district, so they only bake the best"