A HARD CASE.

Observer, Volume 6, Issue 141, 26 May 1883, Page 147

A HARD CASE.

There were some features in the case of Thomas Oullen which give rise to serious doubts as to the strict justice of the sentence inflicted upon him, if the newspaper reports are reliable. Mr Kidd is reported as having given evidence to the effect that the cheque was presented to him on the 10th inst., that he passed the cheque through his account, and when ifc was dishonoured, handed it over to Mr Mackay. But two other witnesses — a draper and a barmaid — swore that the alleged valueless cheque was presented to them separately on the 11th. Wow, ifc will naturally be obvious to anyone that if the cheque remained in Mr Kidd's possession from the 10th, and was handed by him to Mr Maclaiy, the drawer, it could not have been presented by Mr Oullen to any other person on the 11th. Another peculiar point in the case is that Mackay paid Kidd £5 to Cullen's credit, after-having stopped payment at the bank, but notwithstanding this, Cullen, who persisted in alleging that he supposed the cheque to be good, was sentenced to fourteen days' imprisonment for attempting to pass a valueless cheque. These points evidently require some explanation. Either Cullen. supposed the cheque to be good, and therefore was virtually innocent, or the report of the case has been sadly bungled by our contemporaries. -*