South Eastern Gazette,10 January, 1860.

EAST KENT QUARTER SESSIONS.

On Tuesday last these Sessions were held at the Session House, St. Augustine’s, Canterbury, under the chairmanship of J. B. Wildman, Esq.

Stealing a Whip.

John Ross, soldier, for having stolen one whip, value 8s., the property of John Basstook, at Sandgate, on the 7th November. Mr. White prosecuted.

Prosecutor, a fly-driver, deposed that at about 7 o'clock he called at the "Bricklayer’s Arms," at Sandgate. Witness laid the whip on the fly, and when he returned to the fly, the whip was gone.

Sergeant Smith, K.C.C., deposed that on the 7th Nov. last, he rode with the last witness from Folkestone to Hythe. He went into the "Bricklayer’s Arms," and shortly after prosecutor told witness that he had lost his whip. On the next day he found the whip (produced) at the "True Briton," at Sandgate. He then found the prisoner at the "City Arms" beer-house, and he said he had found it opposite the "Bricklayer’s Arms."

Thomas Kemp Stone, landlord of the "City Arms," deposed that the prisoner went to his house on the 8th November, at 5 o’clock in the morning, with the whip in his possession, and which he said he had found. Prisoner asked several persons, while at witness’s house, if they had lost a whip.

The jury acquitted the prisoner.

From the Kentish Gazette, 28 March 1865.

SANDGATE. Stealing a £5 Note.

At the County Sessions Hall, Hythe, on Saturday (before Thomas Denne, Esq.), Thomas Bruty, a discharged soldier of the 71st Regiment, and Benjamin Dayley, Daniel Green, and Henry Whicks, privates in the Grenadier Guards stationed at Shorncliffe Camp, were brought up in custody of Inspector Smith, K.C.C., charged with stealing a £5 note from the person of Henry Amos, of Dover, beerhouse keeper.

Prosecutor stated that he was at Sandgate on the 24thi inst., and went into the "True Briton" beerhouse there about 4 o’clock in the afternoon. All the prisoners were then in the taproom drinking together. The prisoner Whicks asked him if he would take a glass of beer, he replied "Yes," and did so, and then he stood "treat" giving them two pots of beer. He stayed there altogether between a quarter of an hour and twenty minutes, when he left and went on to Folkestone. On reaching Folkestone he put his hand in his pocket to pay the flyman and then missed a £5 note which he had in his right hand trousers pocket when he went into the "True Briton." Prosecutor identified a £5 note produced as the one he lost, he knew it by the corner having been torn off, and by its having been divided.

Miss Charlotte Rigden stated that she lived with her father at the "Bricklayers’ Arms" public house, Sandgate. About half past 5 o’clock on the afternoon of the 21th inst., the prisoner Dayley came into the house and asked for change for a £5 note, she gave him 4 sovereigns and two half sovereigns for the note.

Thomas Francis, of Sandgate, draper, proved that between half past 5 and 6 o’clock on the evening of the 24th inst., the prisoner Bruty came into his shop and purchased several things amounting to 6s. 2 1/2d. He produced a sovereign to pay for them and was given the change.

Inspector Smith, K.C.C., stated that from information he received he went to the "True Briton" beerhouse between 7 and 8 o’clock in the evening of the 24th inst. He found the prisoner Bruty there drunk. He asked him what money he had got about him, he replied, "I don’t know, I may have 2 or 3 shillings." He then asked him where he had got it. He said, "I have been on the Camp and the guards gave it to me" he searched him and found 16s. 9 1./2d. and a parcel containing some new things, which he said belonged to him. Smith also asked him where the three men where he was drinking with. He said "He didn’t know anything about the three men." The other prisoners were subsequently apprehended and searched. On the prisoner Dayley was found 19s. 9 1/2d., on Whicks 18s. 2 1/2d., and on Green 19s. 4d.

Evidence was then given to show that directly the prosecutor left the "True Briton" beerhouse the prionners began whispering together, and Bruty said, "We will go to some place and see whether it is good, and will be back again." They then left together. It was also proved that the prisoner Bruty had been sleeping at the "True Briton" for nearly a week, and that as he had no money on the morning of the 24th instant, some girls living there gave him his breakfast.

In reply to the usual caution the prisoner Green said, "I wish to say that I picked it up for a piece of paper to light my pipe with it." Whicks said that he had heard Green say he picked up a note. Bruty had nothing to say, but Dayley said, "I wish to say that we did not steal that note."

The magistrate committed them for trial at the ensuing Quarter Sessions at St. Augustine’s, Canterbury.