MacTutor
James Davenport
Times article Friday, August 15, 1975
Student fined 100 pounds over firework booby-trap
A graduate who caused two explosions by booby-trapping his room at Trinity College to stop students breaking in as a prank was fined 100 pounds by Cambridge magistrates yesterday.
James Harold Davenport, aged 21, admitted unlawfully damaging a door in the college on May 31. A charge of maliciously causing an explosion was withdrawn on the advice of the Attorney General.
The charge arose from explosions in the room in the Great Court of Trinity College while Mr. Davenport, a fourth-year student and a second lieutenant in the university's Officer Training Corps, was on maneouvres.
Police, including the bomb squad, and firemen were called after a student had set off the first explosion by trying to pick the lock.
Mr. Davenport was said to have wired his room to three large theatrical fireworks. He had done it, the magistrates were told, because of a "silly custom" which had grown up among mathematics students at Trinity of breaking into each other's room.
Mr. Davenport had told the police later how, after a graduation dinner, he had returned to his room to find pounds of confetti placed over his door to fall on him, and 20 gallons of water in plastic bags on the floor.
He had thought it was safe because only mathematics students would try to get in, and they all knew that the booby trap existed and that the room was unattackable. The devices had been intended as a deterrent.
Mr. Arthur Rose, for Mr. Davenport, said that the student who had set off the first firework had decided to remove the furniture and hide it.
Mr. Davenport had never intended to harm anyone and was extremely repentant. He had been rusticated for a year, which meant he could not return to do research until October 1976.
Student fined 100 pounds over firework booby-trap
A graduate who caused two explosions by booby-trapping his room at Trinity College to stop students breaking in as a prank was fined 100 pounds by Cambridge magistrates yesterday.
James Harold Davenport, aged 21, admitted unlawfully damaging a door in the college on May 31. A charge of maliciously causing an explosion was withdrawn on the advice of the Attorney General.
The charge arose from explosions in the room in the Great Court of Trinity College while Mr. Davenport, a fourth-year student and a second lieutenant in the university's Officer Training Corps, was on maneouvres.
Police, including the bomb squad, and firemen were called after a student had set off the first explosion by trying to pick the lock.
Mr. Davenport was said to have wired his room to three large theatrical fireworks. He had done it, the magistrates were told, because of a "silly custom" which had grown up among mathematics students at Trinity of breaking into each other's room.
Mr. Davenport had told the police later how, after a graduation dinner, he had returned to his room to find pounds of confetti placed over his door to fall on him, and 20 gallons of water in plastic bags on the floor.
He had thought it was safe because only mathematics students would try to get in, and they all knew that the booby trap existed and that the room was unattackable. The devices had been intended as a deterrent.
Mr. Arthur Rose, for Mr. Davenport, said that the student who had set off the first firework had decided to remove the furniture and hide it.
Mr. Davenport had never intended to harm anyone and was extremely repentant. He had been rusticated for a year, which meant he could not return to do research until October 1976.
You can see the original newsprint at THIS LINK
