Quarter Sessions
| DOI | 10.1177/002201835501900402 |
| Date | 01 October 1955 |
| Published date | 01 October 1955 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Quarter Sessions
POSSESSION OF HOUSE-BREAKING
IMPLEMENTS
UPON an indictment for being found by night in possession
of implements of house-breaking without lawful excuse,
one of
the
ingredients of
the
offence which
must
be proved
by
the
prosecution is
the
actual possession by the person
accused of
the
implements in question. Since R. v. Harris
(18 Cr. App. Reports 157) it is clear that the type of possession
necessary to constitute
the
offence
must
be actual physical
possession-"the
possesssion of a free
man"
-and
not
merely
possession of a constructive nature.
The
question of how far evidence of house-breaking
implements found at night in a man's house in his absence
(apart from those concerned in
the
alleged offence with which
he was charged) could be considered relevant
and
admissible
was argued at a recent case heard at the County of London
Sessions.
Briefly,thefacts of the case were: thedefendantwas charged
on an indictment containing two
counts-the
first alleging
that
he had received stolen property,
and
the
second alleging
that
he was found by night in possession of certain house-
breaking implements without lawful excuse.
The
implements
concerned in
the
second
count-some
skeleton keys
and
picklocks-were
actually found in
the
glove tray of a car in
which
the
defendant
and
his companions had been driving
immediately prior to his arrest. Possession of these implements
was denied by
the
accused.
The
prosecution sought to adduce evidence regarding
what was called
"a
veritable arsenal of house-breaking imple-
ments",
which was discovered in
the
defendant's flat in his
absence, shortly before his arrival
and
arrest.
The
Police
had entered
the
defendant's flat
under
the authority of a
search warrant to look for stolen goods which they believed
were there. At
the
time they entered, the flat was unoccupied.
While the Police were searching
the
flat, a very large collection
of picklocks, skeleton keys, files
and
other implements of
house-breaking was discovered hidden.
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