HC Deb 20 November 1893 vol 18 c1272
DR. CLARK (Caithness)

In the absence of my hon. Friend the Member for Inverness-shire I beg to ask the Lord Advocate if he is aware that Thomas Roy, painter, Crieff, was lately fined 40s., or in default a month's imprisonment, for having in his possession on the highway a rabbit, which he states he had picked up by the wayside; whether he is aware that Roy was apprehended by a policeman in plain clothes who happened to be fishing in the neighbourhood; and were these things done according to law; and, if so, will he take steps to amend it?

* THE LORD ADVOCATE (Mr. J. B. BALFOUR,) Clackmannan, &c.

Thomas Roy failed to appear in answer to a com-plaint under the Poaching Prevention Act, and was convicted in absence upon proof of the offence having been committed. He had been found in possession of a rabbit by two constables, who had been watching him along the side of a neighbouring wood, where he had no right to be. He gave three different accounts as to how he had come to have the rabbit, but he did not state that he had picked it up by the wayside. Both constables were in plain clothes, and they had been watching at the same place for several mornings on account of the prevalence of poaching in the neighbourhood. It is not the fact that they, or either of them, had been fishing, and I do not see that anything contrary to law was done by the constables.