R v Lawrence

• Jurisdiction: Jamaica
• Judge: Lewis, J.
• Judgment Date: 17 December 1963
• Neutral Citation: JM 1963 CA 17
• Docket Number: Criminal Appeal No.169 of 1963
• Court: Court of Appeal (Jamaica)
• Date: 17 December 1963

Court of Appeal

Cundall, P.; Lewis, J.; Duffus, J.

Criminal Appeal No.169 of 1963

R.

and

Lawrence

Appearances

Mr.I.Ramsay for appellant

Mr.I Forte for Crown

Criminal Law - Appeal against conviction — Larceny

Lewis, J.

1 In this case, the appellant appeals against his conviction by Mr.Grannum, Resident Magistrate of Montego Bay, on the 9 ^th of August, for the offence of larceny of a goat. The goat is alleged to have belonged to one Alfred Lettman who said that he had last seen it on the 3 ^rd of April, 1963, that on the following day his wife made a report to him and he searched and missed this goat. He described the goat as black, with breast of slatish colour.

2 Daisy Blake, a prosecution witness, stated that she had a particular interest in this goat because lettman had promised to sell it to her and that on the 3 ^rd April she saw the appellant catching it near to the Railway premises where it was kept, and that he put it over his back and went into the slaughter house with it. She described it as black with slashes colour under its belly and white at the end of the tail.

3 The appellant said that he was asked by one Baronet, a butcher, to catch the goat for him and that all that he had done was to help catch it and deliver it to somebody – one of those assisting in catching it – and it was not he who conveyed it into the slaughter house. He said that Baronet was in hospital at the time of the trial and he was in hospital at the time of the trial and he was unable to bring him a witness. Amongst the people who he said assisted him in catching the goat was Edith Moore. She gave evidence on his behalf and said that this goat had been given to her by Baronet some three months previously and she had put three cuts into its ear so that she knew it well but that some time after three months she had returned the goat to Baronet, apparently returned it in the sense that she took her son, the accused, and Baronet to the railway premises where they caught it. She said that Baronet carried the goat into the slaughter house.

4 One point of interest there is that the appellant has not specifically mentioned Baronet as having been present at the catching of the goat although he does say it was Baronet was there. In that set of circumstances, if the Resident Magistrate accepted that the appellant had been asked to catch the goat not knowing that it belonged to Lettman, clearly that would have gone to the...