Labourer ‘simply mad’ in drink first before bench for penknife stabbing (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Labourer ‘simply mad’ in drink first before bench for penknife stabbing

4:35pm Thursday 26th July 2012 in Looking Back By Gill Johnson, Features writer

A LABOURER charged with malicious wounding, and several thieves, were the first people to face the court when it opened for business the day following its official opening.

And prison terms were the sentences they faced from Recorder Mr M W Mattinson.

As proceedings began, he recalled the first Quarter Sessions held in Blackburn 26 years earlier, and noted that some of the grand jury who sat with him included some old faces from that time, including the foreman, Alderman W Thompson.

“During the past 26 years, the country has witnessed a marked mitigation in the severity, and punishment, of crime.

“Further, by good conduct and industry, male prisoners can now serve a reduction of a quarter in their sentences, and females a reduction of 33per cent – which did not justify the statements that women are unfairly treated by the law.”

First before the bench that day was Michael Gormley, a 33-year-old labourer charged with malicious wounding after he stabbed a man, he believed to be getting too friendly with his wife, in the face and neck with a penknife.

Superintendent Hodgson said the man was a good workman, but in drink had an ungovernable temper – he was simply mad.

He revealed that a man wounded by Gormley seven years previously had subsequently died.

Gormley was sent to prison for six months.

In other cases, described as a light calendar: n John Rooney, 35, a labourer, pleaded not guilty to stealing a jacket, hat, and case, but was sentenced to nine months.

• William Cronshaw, 71, an engine driver, admitted obtaining money by false pretences and was jailed for 12 months.
•  Leo Jean Le Duc, 29, a hairdresser from Antwerp, was sentenced to four months for stealing a watch, guard and seal.
• John Henry Lord, 48, a labourer, got 15 months hard labour for stealing a pair of boots.
• Painter George Douglas, 53, was jailed for three months for stealing a camera.
• Thomas Branighan, 20, a labourer, was bound over for 12 months for stealing a quantity of fruit.
• John Ward, a 46-year-old spinner, was found guilty of stealing 20 quilts, and 20lbs of rags, and was jailed for three months.