In October 1965 in Salford the teenage beat boom was in full swing and part of the scene were amphetamine-style narcotics known as ‘pep pills’.
But one young lad fell afoul of the desire to get their hands on thousands of these pills for free.
17-year-old David Catterall appeared at Salford Magistrates Court in charged with breaking into Beards Chemist on Broad Street in Salford and stealing over 4,000 pep pills, along with £2 in cash.
Mr J.B. Haynes, defending, painted a picture of Mr Catterall’s life to say that he had got mixed up with a crowd of “living for kicks” teenagers.
It was noted, however, that the youth had seen the light and had joined the army after seeing the error of his ways.
The court heard that Catterall admitted breaking into the chemist shop through a broken window at the rear of the shop and passed out tins of drugs to another youth.
They then went to Buile Hill Park to sort out the drugs, throwing the ones they didn’t want into a public litter bin.
The other unnamed youth said that they should go to Moss Side in Manchester as he knew somebody who would pay £20 for them.
It was without merit, however as when they ventured to Moss Side and handed over the pills their buyer scarpered: a case of the robbers being robbed.
A twist in the story came when the unnamed youth was arrested for the chemist break in and again implicated Catterall.
However in the period between the robbery and the court case, Catterall had joined the Army.
His Commanding Officer took to the stand and said that Private Catterall was making excellent progress, having put himself on the right lines to make not only an excellent soldier but an excellent tradesman as well, adding that if he stayed in the army he would “get over the hard times he has had in young life”.
If that wasn’t enough Mr J.B. Haynes told the Magistrate that the case could be likened to “a very black cloud with a silver lining”.
He added that young Catterall decided that this was not the life for him, and so to resist temptation had joined the army where he was living a hard and frugal life, but redeeming himself, finally adding that, “if ever there was a case meriting leniency, then this was it”.
With such an eloquent defence and glowing testimonials from his Commanding Officer there was very little chance of him going to prison.
The Chairman of the Bench Mr J. Bedell, obviously moved – if not to tears – by this defence gave the boy a conditional discharge for 12 months, warning that the slighest error would be see him back in court.
