In October 1915 an elderly pensioner was jailed in one of the most unusual cases to ever come before Salford magistrates.
70-year-old Annie West, a former dressmaker, was arrested and charged with the theft of a coat and a pair of opera glasses.
When questioned, West was uncooperative with the investigation: perhaps why she should be so was revealed later.
The victim, milk dealer Herbert Cooke, who lived at 11 St Stephen Street in Salford, said the items were swiped from the hall of his home on the morning of 2 September 1915.
It emerged during the investigation that Ms West took the coat and glasses to a pawnbroker’s shop in Gartside Street, Manchester.
She was given two shillings and sixpence for the coat, but the unusual opera glasses were rejected by the pawnbroker.
The prisoner told police she was innocent because she “didn’t remember” taking the items but admitted she may have been “the worse for drink”.
She told the investigating officer Detective Taylor she had been asked to pawn the coat by a woman who wanted to send money to her army husband who was fighting for his country at the Western Front.
This tale was never proven.
When Det Taylor asked her if she could account for her recent behaviour and location at the time of the crime, she replied: “You will get my references from the governers at the various gaols I have been at.”
In court, prosecutors found that the unassuming pensioner was a career criminal: she had already been convicted a staggering 31 times for various offences.
Judges were puzzled with what to do with the elderly woman, especially after the Salford City Reporter recorded: “It was obvious that for the last 18 years she had been engaged in crime.”
Ms West was found guilty of theft and judges had no option other than to jail her for nine months.
If a 70-year-old woman came in front of Manchester and Salford Magistrates Court today, can you imagine the outcry if she were jailed?
Main image © Greater Manchester Police
