Fascinating people, fascinating places.

G'd aye, and welcome to the Dan Mainwearing podcast.

This is where we talk to and about the famous and the infamous,

the celebrated and the obscure, the well-known and

the undiscovered, interviews, articles and discussions from around the globe. On the 7th of February, 1814, three little boys, the oldest of them just nine years old, used

the pen night to pry open the window of a shoemaker's shot. Having crept inside, the boys made off with a pair of boots. They celebrated their

heist with a meal of oranges and nuts. They swiped from another store on the way home.

But unfortunately for the boys, George Bourne, the Bo Street runner, the precursor to London's

police force, had witnessed their actions. and just a week later they stood trial in London's

old Bailey.

In his closing arguments, the prosecutor found it necessary to point out that they'd opened

but not broken the glass window.

The small detail had little effect on the judge. He sentenced the three boys, an eight-year-old and

his nine-year-old friends to death. Now you could be forgiven for thinking that this is a rather draconian punishment for what seems like a rather petty crime, not to mention the fact these were children.

But Judge Sylvester wasn't some kind of bloodthirsty maverick.

He was simply following the letter of the law.

And in the era from the 1700s into the middle of the 19th century. Criminals in England were subject to what became

known as the bloody code.

When you hear stories like this one and consider that over 200 crimes were capital offenses,

it's easy to imagine that Britain in the 17 and 1800s was a place where execution was carried out on an industrial

scale.

But this was an era before we had a professional police force.

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