| 9 February 1861 There is a report of his previous offence in the Staffordshire Advertiser Saturday 9 February 1861 p.7 col.5: CONVICTION OF A GANG OF JUVENILE THIEVES.- George Garner, James Randall, Charles Hewitt, Thomas Bentley, and William Baddaley, all boys under 16 years of age, were charged with stealing a pair of boots the property of Joseph Day, of Hanley. All the culprits. with the exception of Baddaley, pleaded guilty, upon which Mrs Day was called. She identified a pair of boots produced and said that on the 12th of January a boy named Coates, who had not been arraigned, came to her husband's shop with Randall, and that after they had left she missed the pair of boots in question.-Wm. Coates then deposed that on the day named he was in Hanley with all the prisoners. Randall and Hewitt went into Mr. Day's shop and brought out two pairs of boots, which they had stolen. He himself had one pair of boots, which his father burnt on his taking them home. Baddaley was there and knew all about what was going on - Hewitt, Hewitt, who is a very little boy. was then committed for 14 days, with a whipping; and the other boys were each sentenced to three months' imprisonment with a whipping each.-Joseph Tatton, an ill-looking fellow, apparently 18 or 20 years of age, and the head of this gang was then convicted of having stolen a pair of hoots from the shop of Mr. Day, in company with the other boys and a lad named Oulsley, on the 15th of January. At the conclusion of the case. .Superintendent Povey said that the robberies would never, in all probability, have been traced to the prisoners if Oulsley had not, since they had been committed, hanged himself for fear of punishment. The prisoner was sent to prison for three months. He was also charged with an act of vagrancy in haring been in Piccadilly, Hanley, for the purpose of committing a felony. The charge was proved by the part which the prisoner took in the stealing of a pair of trousers by Randall and Garner from the shop of a clothier named Boult. It was ordered that for this offence he be sent to prison for an additional three months. |
| 8 February 1862 There is a short report of his offence in the Staffordshire Advertiser Saturday 8 February 1862 p.6 col.5: A YOUNG DELINQUENT. - Thomas Bentley, a boy under the age of 16. who had been previously convicted of felony, pleaded guilty to a charge of stealing 9 lbs. of pork, the property of Richard Ford, at Burslem. He was sent to prison for 21 days, and it was ordered that he be once whipped. At the end of his term of imprisonment, he will if a vacancy can be found, be sent to a reformatory. |
