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During 41 years in journalism (when he was trained to use simple language, avoiding jargon) for our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry (who spent 23 years with the BBC,) legal issues were always paramount, and now this is put centre stage by a new book, about one magistrate who let off an Armenian because she admired anyone who could speak his difficult language!
It can be tricky in a Magistrate’s Court (MC).
When you were a trainee reporter (as I was on the Cardiff-based South Wales Echo [SWE] in the early 1980s), being sent to ‘mags’ came up regularly on the daily diary of events that needed to be covered.
You would there report on a succession of defendants accused of nicking cars (or ‘Taking Without the Owner’s Consent [TWOCS]), as well as more serious cases when it would have to be kicked upstairs to Cardiff Crown Court (CCC) (they were on the same site then), because the Magistrate’s Court (MC) couldn’t handle it.
But it wasn’t easy, as it was an old building and you couldn’t hear properly.
This was compounded by the fact that you might have to take things down in fairly ropey short-hand; you had to ensure you didn’t put an extraneous ‘not’ in front of ‘guilty’ for example!
It was worth it, though, because you could often pick up some incredible stories in ‘mags’, and it was eye-opening for a youngster fresh from university.
I remember one extraordinary case where a man had stolen his neighbour’s dog because it kept him awake all night by barking!
All of this has been highlighted for me by the re-issue of the memoirs of a Cambridge classicist in the 1920s, who went on to become a magistrate.
Jane Ellen Harrison enrolled in 1874 in the newly established Newnham College for women, at Cambridge University (CU), and her REMINISCENCES OF A STUDENT’S LIFE: A MEMOIR puts everything in context.
She once let off an Armenian who was up for a fine for no other reason (Ms Harrison insists), than her admiration for anyone who could speak his language “the most difficult of all” in Europe.
I must admit I never saw anything like this – it would have made a good story though!
Almost as good as the man who stole his neighbour’s dog…
The memories of Phil’s amazing decades long award-winning career in journalism (including the legal issues which had to be confronted) as he was gripped by the rare neurological disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A Good Story’. Order it now.
Jane Ellen Harrison’s REMINISCENCES OF A STUDENT’S LIFE: A MEMOIR is published by McNally.
Tomorrow – how the charging of a BBC presenter with ‘controlling and coercive behaviour’, highlights again the future of the man at the head of the corporation who has presided over a series of extraordinary scandals, some with Wales at their heart.
