Dumbarton Sheriff Court marks 200 years of justice

A man and two friends were accused of stealing a barrel of whisky - and assaulting a woman and her partner while dancing around the streets.

And the sheriff make the accused stand up to see who was taller in the middle of the trial.

But that's not a recent criminal case. It's an early one from the history of Dumbarton Sheriff Court.

The court is marking 200 years this week, and has been looking back at its past and some of the cases that passed through its walls.

It was more than 50 years after the court was built in 1824 that John Scullion went on trial for indecent assault upon "Jane Stewart or Kerr", reported the Dumbarton Herald and County Advertiser on November 15, 1877.

Mr Scullion, a calico printer from Renton, also alleged assaulted the woman's husband, John Kerr.

And he, riveter Robert Morgan and labourer Patrick Mabon, also from Renton, were charged with entering the spirit cellar of spirit dealer Mrs Weir, in Main Street, Renton, and stealing a cask of whiskey.

They all pleaded not guilty and Scullion claimed an alibi that he was at his father's house. He gave a list of 16 witnesses to prove it.

The first witness said Mrs Weir had got a barrel of Duneville's Irish whisky that September and about two of 14 gallons and been drunk before the theft.

The three men were drinking there, said the witness, and they had been asked to leave. The next morning, the break-in was discovered.

And a couple hours later, she saw the three men "coming up the Main Street together. Their clothes were wet and dirty, and they were the worse of drink".

Around 11pm on the night in question, Mrs Kerr told the court Scullion had come up to her and her husband and pretended to be a policemen.

(Image: Newsquest)

"He ordered them off his beat, and they went with him as far as Mill Burn," reported the paper.

"Here he fell on the old woman, and tried to abuse her, and when her husband came up to rescue her, he assaulted him with a stick belonging to the old man, and otherwise abused him, and then ran off with his stick."

On cross-examination, she "confessed" they were not actually married, just lived together.

A neighbour of the spirit seller heard a woman crying the morning of the assault, and later the moving of a barrel in Mrs Weir's cellar.

The woman and her son went to the door and watched to see if they knew the suspects.

She reported a man said "run" and two men ran away around the corner. She could only identify that one was taller than the other.

Sheriff Gloag asked the accused to stand up: "The one was taller than the other."

Another witness was Robert McKim, post-master, who had some cows grazing near Howgate quarry and saw Scullion and another man standing in the quarry that morning.

Other witnesses in the trial included a night watchman, an engineer, a fireman, a flesher (butcher), and a causewayman.

Some of them identified Scullion, Morgan and Mabon on the morning in question. The barrel of whisky was later found hidden under a new mound of earth.

In Scullion's defence, his father reported his son had come home around 11.30pm and gone to bed, and when he got up the next morning, "the fire was kindled and the kettle was on".

But he admitted he didn't see his son kindle the fire.

Scullion's mother told the court she woke up at 4am and heard a door being unbolted. She said her son would always kindle the fire, but didn't see him to it.

The report described a "long and able defence" of a closing speech, against a "very strong case" from prosecutors.

The jury took just half an hour to return a not proven verdict.

"The prisoners were, of course, dismissed from the bar," concluded the report.

"The court was densely crowded, and great interest was manifested in the trial."

A Russian captain and his servant maid

Originally called the County Buildings, the oldest part of the building is highest front section, housing what is now court 1, scene to many a sheriff and jury trial.

It was built in 1824 and included an adjacent jail, later demolished in 1973. The court was extended in 1865, and police offices and a second courtroom were added in 1895 and 1898.

The building later housed the procurator fiscal and social work department.

In 2009, the court, which serves communities from Clydebank to the north end of Loch Lomond, as well as Dumbarton, the Vale of Leven, Helensburgh, the Rosneath peninsula and all the villages in between, got a £7.5 million refurbishment, including a modern extension at the back and new additional courtrooms, allowing more civil cases, summary trials and justice of the peace work to all go on simultaneously.

The court building was described in 1893 as "chastely beautiful" in Church Street. And the foundation stone was laid on July 19, 1824, which will be marked this week by court staff.

In another case, from October 1893, an "amusing case" described how Elizabeth McCulloch, domestic servant, sued Russian Captain Classing, of The Anchorage, Helensburgh, for wages and board after being dismissed from her employment.

She claimed she had been "upbraided for allowing an enamelled pot to burn". The captain followed her to the kitchen and ordered her to leave.

The newspaper account of the case said: "She was so afraid she passed part of Saturday night in the wash-house, but afterwards went to a sister's house.

"She, however, returned the following day. The captain, who spoke English fairly well, stated that the girl was no good, because she took two hours to go messages that should be done in 20 minutes, and when told that the soup was 'no good', would turn round and assert that it was good."

The sheriff gave 25 shillings, with no expenses.

A number of historic flags connected with the history of the court still exist today, though they are too delicate to move or display (Image: SCTS)

There are 200 years of stories from the court, the vast majority never recorded in newspapers, covering every corner of the region and all walks of life - as it still does today.

In the late 1980s, there were calls for a new court building, as Dumbarton's structure was just not fit for purpose. The nearby Municipal Buildings were used two days a week to try to cope with the demands.

There was a large hole in the ceiling of court 1, and there were complaints about underfunding. There was "little toilet accommodation" and no interview rooms for solicitors to see clients.

But the the community fought to save the common ground - the Old Academy Building - earmarked as a possible alternative.

The idea of moving the court was thrown out, and several years later the building finally got its present refurbishment and expansion to meet the needs of the communities it serves.