Fingerprint Expert Called in at Denaby ­­­Shop – Court Evidence

July 1951

South Yorkshire Times, July 28th, 1951

Fingerprint Expert Called in at Denaby ­­­Shop — Court Evidence

A man who is alleged to have told the police that he got out of a shop quicker than he got in, by jumping straight through a plate glass window, was at Doncaster West Riding Magistrates’ Court last Thursday committed for trial at the next quarter sessions.

Raymond Chambers (19), collier, Sarah Street, Mexborough, pleaded not guilty to breaking and entering a shop in Doncaster Road, Denaby, and stealing three rolls of carpeting and two padlocks, the property of David Haigh, Ltd., pawnbrokers, total value £21 4s 4d.

He also pleaded not guilty to occasioning actual bodily harm to Kenneth Lanceley, baker, of Newfield Crescent, Wath.

Mr. F. Taylor prosecuting, said on June 1st P.c. Metcalfe heard a low whistle and a voice behind the shop and went over a fence into the yard, where he found some rolls of carpet. Two protecting iron bars over a window had been cut through and the window broken. He heard a crash at the front of the shop and ran round to find the plate glass window broken, but he could find nobody. Finger print experts found Chambers’ print on a window.

Chambers was alleged to have told P.c. North that when he heard a noise at the back he jumped through the window at the front.   He said he had had too much to drink.

Dealing with the second charge, Mr. Taylor said that after Kenneth Lanceley, a baker at the Yorkshire Co-operative Bakery, Mexborough, left work with a friend, Chambers, he alleged, went up to him and said “I’ve been waiting for thee.” He further alleged that Chambers struck Lanceley six or seven violent blows.

When questioned, Chambers said that Lanceley had threatened his girlfriend, Miss Connie Goddard, who also worked at the bakery.

In court, Lanceley stated that two or three weeks before the assault he threatened to throw water on Miss Goddard after she had thrown some water over him. He made the remark in a spirit of jest.