R v Hay (1860) was an English robbery trial argued by R. S. Nolan as suggesting a narrow priest–peninent privilege exists in England and Wales, such that the court did not require the priest to disclose any conversation which may have occurred, but on the facts of the case, imprisoned him for not stating who handed a stolen item to him by way of restitution to the victim of a robbery, the priest not having denied he knew the identity of the person who handed it to him.

A police inspector then received the watch from Father Kelly, a priest in the neighbourhood, upon his calling at the presbytery.

Kelly protested: "The reply to a question would implicate the person who gave me the watch, therefore I cannot answer it.

The Catholic Encyclopedia contends that it may be fairly deduced from Mr Justice Hill's words that he would not have required Kelly to disclose any statement which had been made to him in the confessional, and, in this sense, his words may be said to give some support to the Catholic claim for privilege for sacramental confession.

The Encyclopedia further observes, "But we need not wonder that he was not ready to extend the protection to the act of restitution, though, even in the eyes of non-Catholics, it ought, in all logic, to have been entitled to the same secrecy, in view of the circumstances under which, obviously, it was made."