§ MR. CROOKSTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the case of John James Jelly, heard at the Workington Police Court on 25th November, who was proved to be in great poverty from unemployment and had a dying child, and that there was neither fire nor food in his house, who was sentenced to fourteen days imprisonment for stealing coal of the value of 2s. 2d., the defence being that he could not get a ticket for work and wanted the coppers to buy milk for his child; and will he take steps to reduce the sentence.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) I have made inquiry into this case, but I have found no ground for intervention on my part. The prisoner has been discharged on part payment of the fine. This was his third conviction of stealing during the present year.