A trial has been postponed because a police officer’s husband was struggling to cope with their newborn baby.
The unusual reason for cancelling a trial was given by the Crown as the female police 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 had turned up to give evidence despite giving birth just 48 hours earlier.
Edward Townsley, 23, Tayview, Luncarty, was due to go on trial in connection with an allegation of breaching a bail curfew which had been imposed in March this year.
When the case called, fiscal depute Stuart Richardson said: “There are two female police officers as witnesses in this case.
“Thet 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 had gone home to help.”
Townsley – who denies breaching bail by not being at home between 8pm and 6am on May 9 – also failed to turn up and Mr Richardson said he had no objection to the trial being rescheduled for a later date.
Sheriff Simon Collins praised the Police Scotland 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.
He said: “Notwithstanding the obvious dedication to duty we should fix a realistic time frame for rescheduling this matter.” The trial was fixed for November.