Devon Intermediate Sessions: Trial of Prisoners: John Charles Burton, on bail, was charged with stealing a sack and four pecks of beans, the property of George Sanders, on the 5th February, at Wolborough. Mr. Clarke prosecuted, and Mr. Carter defended. The prosecutor is a corn dealer at Newton Abbot and the prisoner had been in his employ for three years. On the day in question, P.C. Endacot saw the prisoner go to Mr. Pinsent’s store, which adjoins that of the prosecutor, and take away a sack. Mr. Sanders had previously discovered this sack with the beans therein in his store, and as it was not customary for the beans to be thus, he communicated with the police, who watched the premises. The beans were subsequently removed by some person to Mr. Pinsent’s premises, and the prisoner was seen by the police to remove the sack from there, and he was apprehended with it in his possession. After being examined before the magistrate, the prisoner admitted to his master that he had taken the beans. Mr. Carter’s defence was that it was the prisoner’s intention to take the beans to the prosecutor’s stable, the door of which he was only allowed to pass a few feet when the policeman pounced upon him: Guilty with a recommendation to mercy: Four months hard labour.
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Referenced
GRO0518 Devonport: John Ball Pinsent: 1819 – 1901 (?)