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Scottish Court of Session Decisions
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> Scottish Court of Session Decisions >> Lord Advocate v Wilkinsons [1835] (Justiciary Case) CA 13_1181 (30 Sept. 1835)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/scot/cases/ScotCS/1835/013SJ1181.html
Cite as: [1835] (Justiciary Case) CA 13_1181
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SCOTTISH_Shaw_Court_of_Session
Page: 1181↓
v.
Subject_Indictment—Reset.—
Charge of reset found relevant where the locus was laid as “at some place in the county of Perth to the prosecutor unknown.”
In an indictment, charging James Wilkinson with theft, and Susan M'Millan or Wilkinson, his wife, with theft and reset of theft, alternatively, the locus of the reset was described as “at some place in the county of Perth to the prosecutor unknown,” no notice whatever being given of the place where the goods were discovered in the resetter's possession.
It was objected to the relevancy—That, although reset was privileged in regard to the latitude with which the locus might be laid, yet there must be some reasonable limit; and in no reported case had it been found relevant to charge reset with a greater latitude than the bounds of a town and its suburbs. 1 But, in point of superficial extent, the locus assigned in this indictment was infinitely wider.
It was answered—That, in libelling the locus of reset, the prosecutor was entitled to great indulgence, and it happened, in the present case,
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1 Alison, II., 269.
that the pannels were of wandering habits, and had no fixed residence in Perthshire.
The pannel replied,—That the circumstance last founded on did not appear ex facie of the indictment, the pannels being designed in the usual way as “present prisoners in the tolbooth at Perth,” and their declarations, not having been proved, were not before the Court.
The Court, referring to the case of Campbell, Kerr and Welsh, 1 and to the cases of forgery cited by Mr Alison (II. 271), in which great latitude had been allowed, and also to the circumstance of the pannels' being without fixed residence in Perthshire,
Repelled the objection to the relevancy.
_________________ Footnote _________________
1 Shaw, Just. No. 75; Alison, ut sup.