Just when we thought the
Raymond Scott trial couldn't possibly get any stranger ... last night he walked into the Peterlee police station and
handed over a 1627 dictionary (possibly the Oxford edition of
Rider's Dictionary, published that year, although the reports don't say). Today in court a police detective said that Scott showed up last evening at around 6:45 p.m., with the book in a "Vivienne Westwood carrier bag." He told police that he had acquired the book in Cuba in January 2008, and did not know whether it had been stolen. Pc Julie Fox told prosecutors "He stated to me that he brought the book back from Cuba in 2008 with a set of Shakespeare volumes."
The judge examined the volume in court today, and then passed it amongst the jurors (although just what it has to do with the charges at issue in the current trial is not entirely clear). It's hard to tell from what we currently know whether this might be
another of the items stolen from Durham in 1998.
Today's reports, piggybacking on those from earlier in the week, suggest that Scott has now admitted that it was the Durham Folio that he took to the Folger in 2008, but that he continues to deny stealing it. The trial resumes on Monday.
