7th March 1939
Jersey and Edinburgh courts argue over inmate
George Darry’s arrest in a Jersey hotel caused a considerable amount of legal work across the mainland that tied up several courts as they considered multiple cases. Not only was Darry charged with involvement in a safe-breaking incident, but the Scottish courts also wanted to talk to one of his co-defendants, Thomas Lay, about breaking his bail conditions.
The Lord Justice Clerk charged Lay with outlawry, meaning the £100 bond that had been lodged against his bail would have to be forfeit. Meanwhile, Darry and Hugh Anson were to appear in a Bournemouth court to answer charges of shop-breaking, while a fourth man, Edward Edwards, was still being held in Jersey on suspicion of breaking and entering.
A complication
This was a problem, as the court had been convened in Edinburgh and the men had been called to account, which they couldn’t do as they were nowhere nearby.
It was claimed that Ley and co had been on bail for fleeing Edinburgh at high speed, for which they were caught in Newcastle when they had broken into the Bournemouth safe before escaping to Jersey.
Hearing this tangled tale, the judge wanted to declare that by failing to attend his court all four deserved to forfeit their bail bonds, but the clerk argued against this, telling him that although they were in court or custody elsewhere for something they had done, it wasn’t technically their fault that they couldn’t appear in the Scottish court.
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Other events that occured in March
Jersey’s occupation bailiff is knighted
- Coincidentally, on the day Lingshaw was sentenced for his treachery, it was announced in the London Gazette that Alexander Coutanche, bailiff throughout the occupation, had been knighted in recognition of his service to the island. Coutanche was again recognised in the 1961 Birthday Honours, when he was made a life peer and given the title […]
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Mystery man’s fatal fall at Fort Regent
- Mystery surrounded the death of John Edward Redden in 1899, who had died shortly after falling on steps at Fort Regent.
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Occupying forces mount desperate raid on Granvillle
- Occupying forces mounted a raid on the French port of Granville when their own stocks started to run down at the end of the war.
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Newspapers demand corporal punishment
- Newspapers demanded that a French labourer to be given corporal punishment for attacking a woman and leaving her for dead in St Martin.
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