No soon as I’d posted the other day about the Court being compassionate and lenient about a child’s theft of pears, I find in the same week, the absolute opposite of an overly harsh incident in the courtroom.
In August 1895, Margaret Prentice, a wee girl living with her family at Cross Row, near Blantyre Works in the Village was charged with stealing roses from the garden of a villa in Low Blantyre.
Caught, the girl pleaded not guilty but evidence was produced that she had taken roses and rasps. The mother of the wee girl said she knew she had done wrong and apologised but the matter was only flowers in a garden she considered wild and had not been tended to for about 3 years.
A fine of 5 shillings was imposed by the court. I think perhaps not just to reflect a not guilty plea was proven to be unsatisfactory, but the fine may also have considered the mothers trivialising of the matter. Still it proved to show, that these cases were absolutely considered on their own merit.
AI images the scene.
