BERKSHIRE LENT ASSIZES
READING, FEB. 23, 1833
CROWN COURT, BEFORE MR JUSTICE TAUNTON
John Morton was charged with stealing a gelding, at Sunninghill, on the property of James Pither.
John Platt was in the employ of James Pither, and on the evening of the 25th of July, which was Reading Fair day, turned the horse into a meadow and shut the gate; he missed the horse next morning, and the next time he saw him was coming home from Petersfield.
John Port, is a horse dealer, and was at a Portsdown Fair on the 26th of July, which is about 60 miles from Sunninghill. Saw the prisoner there about the middle of the day with a bay gelding, of which witness asked him the price, and was told nine guineas. The witness described the marks of the horse, and said he particularly remarked that the prisoner had a scar on his right eye. On returning home from the Fair saw the same horse grazing by the road side without any owner, and drove him home to Petersfield where he kept him till he saw an advertisement in the paper, when he wrote to Pither on the subject, who sent his son and took him away. Gave a description of the prisoner to Peters son, and saw the prisoner a few days afterwards. The horse was worth about 15l. The prisoner only answered him one question at the fair, and that was when he asked nine guineas for the horse. The horse did not seem at all distressed, as if it had been rode along way.
George Pither went to Petersfield, and was shown the horse by the last witness; knew the horse to be the one his father had lost; his father had had the horse four months previous to losing him. From the description Port gave of the prisoner, suspected him, and he was apprehended at Windsor without a warrant.
Wm. Smith accompanied last witness to Petersfield. On the evening on which the horse was stolen, saw the prisoner within half a mile of the field in which the horse had been put, but had no suspicion from that circumstance, as prisoner lived at Sunninghill.
James Pither, the prosecutor, lost a horse and advertised him; sent his son and Smith to Petersfield, and they brought back the horse he had lost. Guilty. To be transported for life.