On this day: 14-year-old girl avoids prison sentence

27th June 1815. In Middlesex, England, Mary Dinan was acquitted of larceny. She was 14. Had she been found guilty, her punishment would probably have been 6 months’ imprisonment.

Maybe her youth was a factor in her acquittal. It may have been assumed that she was led astray by older accomplices. Larceny (theft of personal property) was the most frequent charge to appear in the criminal trial registers of the time.

Read about my ‘ordinary people’ project here.

Previous post: Norris marries her English man.

 

Leave a Reply