George Brown, Robert Glass, Sarah Robertson, and Mary Phillips, were accused of breaking into the shop of Mr Cameron, tailor and clothier, Nicolson Square, by means of the fan-light above the door, and stealing therefrom 173 silk handkerchiefs, nine satin scarfs, nine woollen mufflers, and two small pieces of tartan cloth. All the pannels pleaded not guilty. From the evidence adduced, it appeared, that the four prisoners had been brought to the Police Office on another charge, on the morning on which Mr Cameron’s shop was broken into (the 31st of January), and that, after having been dismissed they were seen walking together in the direction of a close in the High Street. At this time it would be about four o’clock in the morning. The two females were subsequently observed by Sergeant Green standing within a short distance of Mr Cameron’s shop in Nicolson’s Square; and as in passing he heard a sharp whistle, which excited his suspicion, he immediately went and got the assistance of two other constables, and returned to the shop. On looking through the letter-slit in the door, the sergeant saw the figure of a person in the back-room, but not so distinctly as to enable him to recognise who it was. Leaving one of the constables in charge of the two females, he and the other officer hurried round to the rear of the premises, where they apprehended the prisoner Brown endeavouring to make his escape over the wall. Glass was not discovered by any of the policemen; and he was not apprehended until some weeks afterwards, when he was found concealed in a low lodging-house by M’Levie, the criminal officer. The proof against him, therefore, was merely presumptive, he having been an associate of the other pannels, and seen in their company in the course of the same morning. The thieves having been so opportunely detected, all Mr Cameron’s property was recovered before they had time to remove it from the premises. The jury returned a verdict of not proven in the case of Glass, who was dismissed from the bar; but a verdict of guilty was returned against Brown, Phillips, and Robertson, who being habit and repute thieves, and previously convicted of theft, were sentenced to ten years’ transportation. Before Serjeant Green, of the city police, left the witness-box, the Lord Justice-Clerk said that he had frequently had occasion to notice the activity which this officer had evinced; and that, in this case especially, he was deserving of every praise for his share in the detection of the prisoners.

Caledonian Mercury Thursday,  Mar. 18, 1847