The article Man Sentenced for Salmon Poaching brought a memory back from the distant past. In the 1980s I found myself working in Selkirk and appearing in the sheriff court there every week.

I acquired some regulars including ‘Irish Joe’ who was often to be found down at the River Tweed admiring the water. ‘Irish Joe’ was a real character but there was the somewhat awkward time he was accused of taking a fish from the Tweed – from the then resident sheriff’s stretch of river.

Slightly awkward all round then.

Come the trial a sheriff was parachuted in from distant parts (Glasgow as I recall. Perhaps not much poaching done in the Clyde back then). Somehow I was able to persuade him that the evidence of the water bailiffs was not reliable. Indeed there was in truth no corroboration. A not guilty verdict properly followed.

The following week it was back to business as normal but both the procurator fiscal and I felt that there was a slight cold snap in court that week!

John Taylor