Mexborough & Swinton Times – Saturday 09 December 1922
On Tuesday the Doncaster magistrates dismissed a summons against Jim. Chas. Butler, a Denaby miner, under the Poaching Prevention Act.
P.c. Baker and another officer said they saw him at 10.50 p.m. on Nov. 17th, coming from the direction of Denaby Ward and Hooton Roberts.
They stopped him and told him they suspect him of having come from land where he had been in search of game, and that they would searching. They did so and found in his possession a purse net and a snare. Both were wet and dirty. Defendant’s boots were also wet and dirty.
When asked to account for the articles, he said that they belonged to him and nobody had anything to do with it. When told he would be reported for he said he had been at it for years.
The defence was a total denial of these remarks, that he had been poaching. He had been with two friends to the Hill Top public house, which they left at 10 o’clock. While there he bought the net and snare from a stranger. They walked home over the fields as they have been used to doing for years.