Daily Mail, London, 6 May 1967

Farmer whips boys who fought his fire

FARMER Alex Pogson was furious with the two 12-year-old boys he caught near his burning grain sacks.

He whipped them twice with his horse whip and made them and the two 14-year-old girls with them climb over a hawthorn hedge. Then he drove them to an isolated country lane and left them with a three-mile trek home.

But, a court heard yesterday, Pogson, 43, of Mansfield Road, Farnsfield, Nottinghamshire, had punished the wrong children.

Vandals

For the two whipped boys, Graham Ravill and Robert Sale, both of Station Road, Rainworth, were trying to put the fire out, said Mr. Geoffrey Bilton, prosecuting Pogson at Southwell.

He said that other children had admitted to the police that they had set fire to the sacks.

He added: "The defendant would appear to have taken the law into his own hands. He beat the children, who, far from destroying his property, had extinguished the fire."

Pogson admitted assaulting the boys and causing them bodily harm. He was fined £10.

He said the punishment was part of his war on vandals who had caused £310 in damage.