§ Mr. LUTTRELLasked the Home Secretary whether he is aware that Florence French, a boy of fifteen years three months, was, contrary to the provision of the Children Act, tried in an ordinary court of summary jurisdiction, before Mr. Cecil Chapman, on 8th February, 1910; that Florence French was, for the offence of loitering in the approach leading to London Bridge station, fined 10s., with 2s. costs, by Mr. Cecil Chapman on 8th February, and, being unable to pay the fine, was forthwith committed to hard labour at Wandsworth Prison for seven days; and will he say why, notwithstanding that the Children Act came into force on 1st April, 1909, no instructions relative to the incarceration of boys under sixteen years of age had, up to 7th March of this year, been issued to the Governor of Wandsworth Prison?
§ Mr. CHURCHILL:I have made inquiry about this case, and I find that the magistrate examined the question of this lad's age, and decided upon the evidence before him that he was in fact over sixteen. The Act expressly provides that the decision of the Court in this respect shall be final. French was not sentenced to hard labour. He had been charged with similar offences on three previous occasions during the last twelve months and had failed to profit by the lenient treatment he received on each occasion. His parents refused to pay the fine on the ground that he was beyond their control. A prison governor cannot refuse to receive a prisoner because the prisoner gives his age as under sixteen; he is bound by the decision of the Court; but I will issue instructions which, I hope, may guard against the possibility of the committal by oversight of any person under sixteen.