Crime
The fact that Lewes has a Crown Court, and a prison, is reflected by the fact that many notorious people have been connected with the town. During the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland several prominent figures involved in it were in Lewes Prison, including Éamon de Valera (1882–1975); Thomas Ashe (1885–1917); Frank Lawless (1871–1922); and Harry Boland (1887–1922). Others have included George Witton (1874–1942) involved in shooting prisoners during the Boer War.
Lewes assizes saw many important trials. In 1949 serial killer John George Haigh was sentenced to death. In 1956 suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams had his committal hearing in Lewes before being sent to the Old Bailey, London for trial. He was subsequently tried and convicted in Lewes in 1957 for fraud, lying on cremation forms and obstructing a police search. An early case was that of Percy Lefroy Mapleton (1860–1881) hanged for murder and the subject of the first composite picture on a wanted poster.
| + Crime rates in Lewes (per 1000 population) 2005-2006 | Locally | Nationally |
|---|---|---|
| Robbery | 0.17 | 1.85 |
| Theft of a motor vehicle | 1.67 | 4.04 |
| Theft from a motor vehicle | 4.59 | 9.56 |
| Sexual offences | 0.83 | 1.17 |
| Violence against a person | 16.75 | 19.97 |
| Burglary | 2.99 | 5.67 |
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Famous quotes containing the word crime:
“I wish so much of crime didn’t take place after dark. It’s most unnerving.”
—Ketti Frings (1915–1981)
“There is no society known where a more or less developed criminality is not found under different forms. No people exists whose morality is not daily infringed upon. We must therefore call crime necessary and declare that it cannot be non-existent, that the fundamental conditions of social organization, as they are understood, logically imply it.”
—Emile Durkheim (1858–1917)
“The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)