Corpun file 18595

Manchester Guardian, 17 May 1886

Manchester Spring Assizes.

Crown Court, Saturday.

(Before Mr. Justice Denman.)

Criminal Assaults.

[...]

William Barker, 21, labourer, who pleaded guilty to assaulting a little girl of the age of 3 years and 11 months at Bolton on the 22nd March, was sentenced to imprisonment for twelve months. Mr. R.Smith appeared to prosecute.

Arthur Barlow, 14, crofter, found guilty of improper conduct with a little girl of under seven years of age at Little Lever on the 7th April, was ordered by the Judge to receive fifteen strokes with a birch rod. Mr. Hugh Hamilton prosecuted, and Mr. M'Keand was for the defence.

[...]

Corpun file 18596

News of the World, London, 23 May 1886

The Police Courts.

Hammersmith.

Naughty Boys.

Three boys, named Joseph Bryan, Alfred Olive, and William Whittick, were charged with stealing milk, the property of the Glover Dairy Company (Limited), of Brook-green-road, Hammersmith.

The prisoners, with three other boys who were not in custody, were seen between six and seven o'clock that morning entering places in Lena-gardens, Shepherd's-bush, and drinking milk from the cans which had been left for the customers. It also appeared that the prisoners had been out all night.

Mr. Bennett inquired whether the prisoners were known.

Redstall, the gaoler, said all the boys had been birched at that Court. Since the time Whittick was birched he had been committed to prison for three months.

Mr. Bennett ordered Bryan to receive twelve strokes and Olive six strokes from a birch rod. He committed Whittick to prison for ten days, and ordered him to be detained in a reformatory until he was 16.

Corpun file 18598

Daily News, London, 27 May 1886

Assize Intelligence.

The Criminal Law Amendment Act.

Several cases of indecent assault on children were heard at Taunton Assizes yesterday before Mr. Justice Day, and sentences varying in period from twelve months to two years were passed. In sentencing a man named Ould to two years' imprisonment for an assault upon his stepdaughter, aged 14, at Bristol, his lordship said if he had his way crimes of this sort would become infrequent in the country because he would take care if he had the power to order substantial punishment in the shape of a good flogging administered to everybody found guilty of ill-using small children. While the law did not very effectually, as it appeared to him, protect children it protected those who abused them. People like the prisoner felt more than anything else corporal punishment, and it was a great pity that they should be maintained by the country when they could be detained for a short period and released after undergoing a sharp course of personal discipline.