Mary Ann Dowler 1865
9 year old Mary Ann Dowler was sent to prison for five years for stealing 8 pence from Eleanor Thornton in Claines, just north of Worcester. Her elder sister, Ellen, was also imprisoned at the age of 9 for stealing. It is mentioned in the case notes that the girls’ mother encouraged them to steal.
If This Happened Today
She is 9 and is therefore below the age of criminal responsibility and cannot be guilty of any offence. If she were ten she could be guilty of theft, and would probably get a police reprimand. (At 10, the age of criminal responsibility in England is one of the lowest in Europe – though in Scotland it is 8!) Mary would today get immediate help from social services and probably her local YISP.
Fitness to plead/diminished responsibility – with reference to the executed prisoner with abnormal brain development
The law says that “Where a person kills or is a party to the killing of another, he shall not be convicted of murder if he was suffering from such abnormality of mind (whether arising from a condition of arrested or retarded development of mind or any inherent causes or induced by disease or injury) as substantially impaired his mental responsibility for his acts and omissions in doing or being a party to the killing. “ Consequently he must be charged with manslaughter. For lesser offences the judge has to decide on the evidence available if the accused is "fit to plead" and if not can order his detention in hospital, supervision or an absolute discharge.
