In the Scottish Courts
| DOI | 10.1177/002201838104500204 |
| Published date | 01 May 1981 |
| Date | 01 May 1981 |
| Subject Matter | In the Scottish Courts |
In
the
Scottish Courts
Comments
on
Cases
GLUE SNIFFING
Fisher v. Keane
The social evil
of
glue sniffing by school children has proved difficult
to bring within the ambit
of
the criminal law in Scotland. An
attempt
by the Crown to bring home criminal liability to the shopkeeper who
sells glue to a child in the knowledge
of
the purpose for which it is
to be used has already failed (Skeen v. Malik, Glasgow Sheriff Court,
August, 1977, unreported); and now in Fisher v. Keane (High Court,
Justiciary Appeal, 13th November, 1980, asyet unreported) acomplaint
that the accused "conducted himself in a disorderly manner, sniffed a
form
of
glue, became dazed and unable to control his actings under its
influence, caused alarm to the lieges and committed abreach
of
the
peace" also came to a sticky end.
The sheriff at Airdrie had convicted on that complaint, after hearing
evidence that adistraught woman had stopped two constables to tell
them that "there was a laddie glue sniffing there, he must be stopped."
They found that this was indeed so, and arrested him. At the trial,
after surmounting in a strange way the evidential obstacles to using
the woman's statement, the sheriff drew the inference that the boy's
conduct was a species
of
disorderly conduct done in breach
of
public
order or decorum which caused alarm to the lieges, or at its lowest
might reasonably be expected to lead to the lieges being alarmed or
upset.
On appeal, the High Court quashed the conviction, holding that the
inference drawn by the sheriff was incorrect. It was, said the Court,
based on his judicial knowledge about the prevalence
of
glue sniffmg
in the area, its dangers and possible effects. Breach
of
the peace could
only be inferred from the conduct itself
if
that
conduct was so flagrant
to allow an inference
of
criminality to be drawn. Here, the facts did
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