At Petty Sessions, William Liddle Hastie, a Private in the Welsh Guards, was charged with burglary.
Mr Haddow, of Walsworth Road, Hitchin, confirmed that he had locked up his shop and retired to bed at about 11:30pm. At about 7:00am the next morning, however, he had found that his shop, a hosier and clothier, had been broken into from the back and had been ransacked and left in a state of total disorder. Several articles of clothing, and a bicycle, had been stolen. Also missing was some food. In the shop, he had found, however, a soldier’s cap and tunic, together with puttees and boots.
PC Mastrell, of Arlington, Bedfordshire, said that on the following day, at about midday, the prisoner had come to his house and had given himself up as a deserter. He advised the Bench that the defendant had been wearing military trousers, but that he had asked the defendant where he had got the other clothes that he had been wearing at the time. The defendant said that he had broken into a shop in Hitchin the previous night.
Because of the seriousness of the offence, the Bench committed the defendant to the Assizes.
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