Jørgen Berthelsen's brush with the law

Jørgen at age 56 years was described as having grey hair, blue eyes, of fair complexion and standing 5 feet 5 inches tall (165.1 cm) when he was arrested by Constable J. Ryan for wilful damage. He appeared before the District Court in Bundaberg on 4 February 1896. The offence was more formally recorded as malicious injury to property, the owner being George Buss and another who operated a large department store in Bourbong Street. The trial before Judge Miller resulted in Jørgen being sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment from 6 March 1896¹. 

This being Jørgen’s first offence was in his favour and saved him from serving his sentence. Having entered the necessary recognisance he was discharged from custody. Under the provisions of the Offenders Probation Act of 1886 courts were permitted to suspend sentences for first offenders convicted of minor offences, albeit, with a suitable recognizance that they be of good behaviour for 12 months and report to the police every three months during that period. Significantly, Queensland’s Offenders Probation Act thus established one of the first statutory probation schemes in the world, and also served as the model for similar legislation subsequently introduced in all other Australian colonies.

No doubt Jørgen’s brush with the law was attributable to other extenuating circumstances for in the years just preceding his arrest he had endured a period of great tragedy. It began with the loss of his two-year-old daughter, Sissa Elizabeth in late 1891, to be followed by the further loss of an unnamed baby son in January 1892 and even more devastatingly the loss of his wife, Ellen one-year later after giving birth to Arthur, their last child who died aged seven days.

___________

Back