Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer – Monday 14 October 1929

Sentence Reduced

“I am satisfied this is not a case for punishment, and that the Doncaster magistrates, had they known the real facts of the case as now given me, would not have passed the sentence they did,” said the Recorder when William Flint, grocer, Swinton, appealed against his conviction and sentence of three months’ imprisonment passed upon him at Doncaster for stealing ten parcels, value £15, from the Doncaster railway station.

Mr. Streatfeild (for appellant) said that after considering the evidence he had decided to appeal only against the sentence. He said that sixteen days after the offence Flint was under treatment in an institution for three months. He was then suffering from mental instability.

He had been discharged as recovered, but his condition was far from satisfactory’.

The man’s wife promised the Recorder that there were signs a recurrence of her husband’s illness she would call in a doctor.

The sentence of three months was quashed, and one of a day’s imprisonment substituted.