§ Mr. NEWMANasked the Home Secretary whether he will inquire into the case of a youth named Frank Smith, aged seventeen, who on 4th November was sentenced at the Marylebone Police Court to a fine of £5 or a month's hard labour for obstructing the police and, in addition, to six weeks' hard labour for having a bullet in his possession; whether he is aware that it was shown in evidence that the bullet had been picked up by the prisoner in his employer's shop, and that he himself does not possess a pistol or firearm of any description; and whether he will see his way, under these circumstances, to remit the second portion of the sentence?
§ Mr. McKENNAI have already made inquiry in the case, and I find that the facts have been misrepresented. Smith, who was extremely violent, was convicted of two assaults on police officers, and might have been convicted of a third assault on another officer, whom he threw to the ground. The possession of a bullet formed no element in the charges against him, and the magistrate did not even know that he had one in his possession.