There is no column on the Duns Sheriff’s Court in the Berwickshire this week. Perhaps he was on half term with the school children or the usual court reports were crowded out by a full page ad from Mr Howard about Council Tax or by the proceedings of the Greenlaw and Hume Community Council. The usual rule of thumb seems to be the smaller (in terms of population) that a Community Council covers the greater amount of column inches the report takes up. Hutton and Paxton certainly has a magnificent columnal spread every month or so. But that little council has more members of the public at meetings than any other CC in Berwickshire. Anyhow crime reports do appear if tucked away in odd places. One on page 27 headed ‘Eyemouth Man punched wife’ is about an incident a 2am one morning when the defendant returned home after a drink or two in Duns and ‘appeared agitated’ This agitation led to him ‘punching his wife on her arm’ Sentence deferred but Sheriff Kevin commented “ It’s a matter of some shame to hit a woman” -and a matter of some public concern, it might be thought that an Eyemouth man returned all the way from Duns after drinking in an agitated state? Was he driving? It could be asked.
