And Finally

A 17-year-old high school student faces 30 days in jail after admitting he threw a paper plane at his science teacher. Teacher Edward McIver took a complaint to school management and the local police after a paper plane thrown by one of his pupils struck him in the eye - just shortly after he receiv

A property company is suing a local authority which has objected to a fish-and-chip franchise tenant on the grounds that its name – Moby Dick – may cause offence to some sensitive souls, thereby causing the value of property in the area to fall. The council believes that the second word in the r

A father is pressing fraud charges against his teenage daughter after she used his credit card to buy a plane ticket to visit her boyfriend in Germany. The love-lorn teenager was hauled off the flight before it departed when the father got a call from his bank about possible fraudulent charges from

A reggae festival has been granted exemption from anti-drug laws to allow revellers to roll their reefers and enjoy their ganja without fear of arrest. The Rebel Salute reggae festival, founded in 1994 by Rastafarian sing-jay Tony Rebel, can also now openly advertise as a marijuana festival for the

Detectives are on the trail of a slippery customer who stole a two foot long python from a pet shop by stuffing it down his trousers. Sgt. Greg Stewart said no arrests have yet been made in connection with last Friday’s theft but the crime was captured on CCTV.

A German Volkswagen executive indicted for the emissions scandal who made the mistake of going on holiday to Florida — is spending more time in the sunshine state than he intended after FBI agents arrested him at Miami airport as he tried to return home. Oliver Schmidt is one of six VW executives

A Mafia kingpin who was spared a custodial sentence after a judge took pity on him for having a permanent erection but who fled while under house arrest has been caught, after seven years. Francesco Castriotta, 42, went on the run while under house arrest in 2009.

Discourteous Chinese police officers have been given training on how to be polite in their dealings with the public – for three months in a luxury hotel. Police in Chang’an district, in the city of Xi'an, announced the training, held at a five-star hotel, after a local television channel reporte

Firefighters had to be called in to help a Scottish police officer after they handcuffed someone — themselves. The incident occurred at a safety session in Aberdeen. Police said the handcuffs “malfunctioned”, requiring firefighters armed with boltcutters to free an officer.

A Canadian judge who wore a Donald Trump "Make America Great Again" cap in his courtroom the day after Trump's election victory has been removed from the bench. Justice Bernd Zabel of the Ontario Court of Justice received flak for wearing the pro-Trump hat in court on 9 November last year, with a nu

The Green Party in Germany has said disabled people should be allowed to claim money from the government in order to buy sex on prescription. Elisabeth Scharfenberg, a member of the German parliament, said local authorities could pay for sex workers, who are increasingly being asked to work in the c

A shoplifter who underestimated the available space in her leggings when she put a frying pan down them and tried to exit an IKEA without paying was apprehended by security. Sierra Coleman, 28, was easily spotted by guards who attempted to detain her as she argued with them despite the frying pan be

An Arkansas judge will never serve on the bench again after resigning immediately after allegations of sexual misconduct were put to him. Timothy Parker continues to deny swapping sexual favours with "many female litigants" in exchange for favourable bond conditions or the release of the women or th

Six prisoners escaped a US jail on Christmas morning by removing a toilet and crawling through a hole behind it. The Christmas escape from the Cocke County Jail Annex in Newport, Tennessee was short-lived as the sixth inmate was recaptured on 28 December.

Over the past year, our And finally section - with the most absurd, offbeat, strange or funny legal stories - has kept lawyers entertained. Here, we list our 10 most popular stories of 2016: