Now, I"d always thought of Santa Claus as a kindly old man who loved children. So it came as a shock to find he was appearing in court. And the charges fair made me gasp: cruelty to children, they were. Who"d have believed it?
Looking back almost 12 months to that amazing day when I sat in on Santa Claus"s trial, I can see it all again as clearly as if it were yesterday. I suppose I shall never really know just how it happened. All I know is that it did happen.
I"m a newspaper reporter in a small English town struggling to make my way in the world and one of my regular jobs is to cover the local magistrates court. The magistrates sit on a Thursday in the Town Hall dispensing justice to assorted thieves, villains and other rogues.
On this particular day the magistrates and I were all fin
