Sheffield Independent – Tuesday 01 January 1918

Wounding “Dandy”

 Kilnhurst Pony Driver Fined At Rotherham

A Kilnhurst pony driver, Leonard Bentley, aged 16, was yesterday at Rotherham fined £3 for having at Thrybergh Hall Colliery cruelly ill-treated a pony and for breach the regulations in not reporting to official under whose direction he was working that the animal was injured.

Mr. W. M. Gichard prosecuted, and Mr. W. J. Bradford defended.

The case for the prosecution was that defendant was entrusted at the beginning of the morning shift with pony named Dandy, then in good condition. On bringing it back to the stables he unharnessed and left it, and the horse keeper subsequently found the animal had a punctured wound half-an-inch deep and half-an-inch in diameter. It had not since been in a condition to work.

The defence was denial of having caused the injury, or any knowledge of when the pony was left the stable.