Mexborough & Swinton Times – Friday 07 April 1933

Game Trespass

Roosting Pheasants Bagged

A young Bolton-on-Dearne miner, Leonard Mangham, appeared before the Doncaster magistrates on Tuesday charged with having killed two pheasants and trespassed in a plantation between Brodsworth and Bilham on March I7th.

Harry Tilstone, a gamekeeper, said he saw Mangham and another man with bicycles on the road. They stopped and Mangham took a folding gun from beneath his coat and went into a plantation. Witness crawled after him on his hands and knees and saw him kill two pheasants roosting in bushes. When asked for their names and addresses, the men refused but with the assistance of the police witness identified Mangham later.

Mangham denied that he had either gun or pheasants. He alleged that the statement of the gamekeeper “was a pack of lies.” He added that he would rather be tried at the Assizes.

Supt. Minty said Mangham had fourteen convictions, including imprisonment for indecent assault and fines for game trespass among other offences.

The chairman (Mr. M. L. Nokes) said that if the Bench could have sent Mangham to prison for a long term they would have done so. He would  be fined £ 4 5s., and it must be paid that day.