GEORGE CONNOLLY LYNN v. PROCURATOR FISCAL, EDINBURGH

This is an appeal by stated case by George Lynn. He appeared in the Sheriff Court at Edinburgh on 7 April 1998 and was convicted of an offence under Section 47(1) of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) Act of 1995. The object in question was a baseball bat. It is common ground that the implement was not an offensive weapon per se and there is no question of adaptation. The question is therefore one of whether the Sheriff was justified in drawing the inference that, on all the facts, this was an offensive weapon with the appropriate statutory intention of use.

The submission is that the Sheriff did not have a sufficient basis on which to find that the appellant had the baseball bat with the intention required by the statute of causing personal injury.

On behalf of the appellant it was acknowledged by Miss Scott that the matter was always one of inference from the circumstances. It was therefore a matter for the Sheriff and the appeal would succeed only if no reasonable Sheriff would have drawn the inference from the facts available. The Sheriff lists a number of facts that were taken into account, these including not merely the fact that this was a baseball bat, but that this was in the bag with clothing and other matters that are found as facts.

In these circumstances we hold that the Sheriff did not err and that there was sufficient evidence and he was entitled to convict and we will answer the questions accordingly.