On this day in Yorkshire
Sheffield man sentenced to five years penal servitude
December 28 1888
Joseph Cuneo, a steel roller of Sheffield, pleaded guilty to stealing from the person of Catherine Agnes Jackson, of Scarborough, a purse and £1 8s 9d at Doncaster railway station on November 24.
The prisoner pleaded for mercy but the Recorder said he could not listen to his plea, because he found that he had been living a life of dishonesty since 1872.
Under the circumstances it was quite impossible to be merciful, and he would be sentenced to penal servitude for five years.