How sound of a crying baby led to silence in court...

IT’S not every day a newborn baby stops a court case. But it happened yesterday after a policewoman had to rush home to her child.

The unnamed officer had arrived to give evidence at Perth Sheriff Court – only two days after giving birth.

But having left her husband literally holding the baby, she was forced to leave the court building when he called her to say the infant would not stop crying.

The unusual reason for cancelling a trial was given by the Crown as the officer was praised by a sheriff for her dedication to duty. The court was told the officer was a witness in a trial and had turned up to give evidence despite just having given birth.

Edward Townsley, 23, was due to go on trial for allegedly breaching a bail curfew imposed in March.

But when the case called, depute fiscal Stuart Richardson said: ‘There are two female police officers as witnesses in this case. They both turned up at my office this morning. To my astonishment, one of them told me she had only had a baby two days ago.

‘Her husband phoned to say the baby wouldn’t stop crying, and – being a typical man – he didn’t know what to do, so she went home to help.’

Townsley – who denies breaching bail by not being at home in Luncarty, Perthshire, between 8pm and 6am on May 9 – also failed to turn up.

Mr Richardson said he had no objection to the trial being rescheduled.

Sheriff Simon Collins praised the officer for making the effort to turn up so soon after giving birth, but added: ‘Notwithstanding the obvious dedication to duty, we should fix a realistic time frame for rescheduling this matter.’

A new trial date was fixed for November.