THERE was drama in Eastbourne a century ago when a notorious criminal was caught in the act.

Homeless Arthur Jackson was arrested for “being a suspect person” and intending to pick pockets at a bus stop in Terminus Road.

The convict had gained notoriety two years before after he attacked the Lord Mayor of London Sir Thomas Crosby in an attempted robbery.

After receiving 15 months’ hard labour for the vicious attack, he was given a clause committing him to good behaviour for seven years.

This proved much too much for Arthur and police picked him up for “loitering with intention of committing a felony” after he was spotted suspiciously getting on three buses with another gentleman momentarily in a crowd of passengers and then leaving again almost immediately.

He was sentenced to 12 months’ hard labour for his latest criminal enterprise.

Tragedy also in Langney with the heartbreaking tale of a toddler who was found drowned in a ditch not 50 yards from his home.

Little Alec Nelson Huggett, three months short of his second birthday, was found dead in the back garden of his home in Springfield Cottages, New Road, Langney, near Eastbourne.

His mother, Rosie Ellen Huggett, told the inquest that she was cooking when she noticed her little bundle of joy was missing.

After searching the back garden she made the terrible discovery that he was lying face down in a ditch and, in her own words, “appeared quite dead”.

Despite putting him in a bath of hot water, there was no sign of life.

The little child often played around the ditch for which there was no protection or fencing and loved to chase cats through his garden.