Mexborough & Swinton Times – Saturday 30 November 1912
Coal Stealing at Conisborough
A Precocious Lad
Birch Rod and Punishment
William Platts (13), of New Conisborough was summoned by the Great Central Railway Company with stealing at Conisborough on October 31
Mr Hall (for the company) said that the defendant had been a great nuisance to the stationmaster at Conisborough, Mr Richards. For over two years thefts of coal had been going on. At 11 AM on October 31, Mr Richard saw the defendant on the top of a truck of coal. He was engaging throwing coal into a bucket, but and see Mr Richard he runaway, leaving the bucket behind. The defendant was continually stealing coal.
Charles Peters Richards, the stationmaster at Conisborough, bore the statement out. The defendant and managed to roll about 1 hundredweight of coal off the truck. The value of the coal would be about 8d.( 3.3p)
The defendant admitted that he had taken coal off the truck, but he did not steal it.
The father of the child, John Platts, said that he was unaware that the child that stolen coal. He (the father) and recently had a stroke. This had interfered with his work.
The Chairman: What are you?
“A chimney sweep.”
The Chairman: That’s a good trade.
Witness: It is a good trade. I wish I had never known it.
The Chairman, in ordering the boy to have six strokes with a birch rod, said that the parents were not to blame for the lad’s thefts.