Newborn baby is the catalyst for delay in trial

Witness: Police officer had given birth just two days before court appearance

A trial was postponed yesterday because a police officer’s husband was struggling to cope with their newborn baby.

The unusual reason for delaying the trial was given by the Crown as the female officer was praised by a sheriff for her dedication to duty.

Perth Sheriff Court was told that the unnamed officer was a witness in a trial and she had turned up to give evidence – despite giving birth just 48 hours earlier.

Edward Townsley, 23, from Luncarty, was due to go on trial in connection with an allegation of breaching a bail curfew that had been imposed in March this year.

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 turned up and 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 has gone home to help,” Mr Richardson told the court.

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

Mr Richardson therefore said he had no objection to the trial being rescheduled for a later date.

Sheriff Simon Collins praised the police officer for making the effort to turn up so soon after giving birth and asked for the case to be put off for an appropriate length of time.

“Notwithstanding the obvious dedication to duty, we should fix a realistic time frame for rescheduling this matter,” the sheriff said.

The trial was fixed for November.