In Italy, people caught in possession of marijuana have raised many diverse defences. “I was due to spend a long time alone up a mountain with a flock of sheep” broke new legal ground, however, when it was raised recently by a shepherd as a defence in the Supreme Court of Cassation. It succeeded and the man was acquitted. So now the only crook on the mountain is the one in the shepherd’s hand.

The 45-year-old man, identified in the law report as Giorogi D, had been caught in possession of 38 grams of marijuana during a random car check in Trentino-Alto Adige in the far north of the country. Some of the drug was wrapped and some of it was in jars and mixed with tobacco.

The shepherd explained to police that he was about to spend a very long time alone with his sheep in the countryside and up a mountain as the flock was due to be migrated. The drug was to ease his hardship. Nonetheless, he was prosecuted. The police took the view that even though his story seemed true, the amount of marijuana he had was over the guideline for mere personal use.

The trial court acquitted him and the prosecutor appealed. The appeal court upheld the acquittal. It ruled that when judging whether an amount of marijuana such as that with which the shepherd was caught was for mere personal use, and therefore excusable, a court should examine how it was stored and all the circumstances. The trial court had been justified in acquitting the shepherd.

This may be the first time sheep have helped to exonerate a man from a criminal charge. In several cases, though, sheep have been the cause of men’s legal downfall. These are generally incidents in which the culprit — intoning the sentiment ‘ewe know I’m no good’ — gets into a closer relationship with the animal than the law permits. In 2007, a man was arrested in southeast London after someone was spotted in a decidedly non-agricultural relationship with a sheep and his DNA was identified on a pair of abandoned jogging bottoms found at the scene.

No one wants a moment of intimate personal companionship to be witnessed but some interruptions are worse than others. In 2002, a 23-year-old man was half-naked and engaged in such a liaison with a goat in a field called Paradise Allotments in the northeast of England. To his horror, however, and perhaps to the goat’s relief, a packed Hull-to-Bridlington train made a sudden unscheduled signal stop right beside them. Many of the aghast passengers made mobile calls to the police and the man was later arrested. At first he denied the encounter but was convicted after goat hairs were discovered in his underpants.

At Hull Crown Court, his lawyer pleaded for a non-custodial sentence, saying his client would be prepared to go on a “victim awareness” course. A suitable course was not, though, offered by either the criminal justice system or the farmyard community so the man was sent from Paradise Allotments to Her Majesty’s allotments for six months.

Professor Gary Slapper is Director of the Centre for Law at The Open University

Times Recommends

• The best legal yarns this Christmas
• Legal school 'earned £1m by exploiting bar course'
• Axe may fall on 5,000 more City lawyers