Corpun file 25180 at www.corpun.com
Daily Mirror, 18 November 1933, p.3
Master Denies "Brutality"
Story of Nine-Year-Old Boy Who "Bullied"
Schoolboy flogging charge fails
Dormitory Whipping
Mother's Summons Dismissed
Mr. S. de Moyse Bucknall, the headmaster. |
By a majority verdict, Ealing (London) magistrates yesterday
dismissed a summons against a headmaster who was accused of
brutality in the caning of a nine- year-old boy.
The headmaster is Mr. S. de Moyse Bucknall, principal of Harrow
View House Preparatory School, Ealing, and he was summoned by
Mrs. Mona Alice Goodwin, of Cleveland-road, Ealing, wife of a
City solicitor, for assaulting her nine-year-old son, Barry,
formerly a pupil there.
Mr. Linton Thorpe, K.C. (for the defence), described the
prosecution as one of "vindictive exaggeration" and
said Mr. Bucknall had adopted the only proper method to suppress
bullying.
Opening the case, Mr. J.P. Eddy, prosecuting, said that what was
complained of was not ordinary chastisement, but "a piece of
gross brutality affording no justification whatever."
On November 2, continued Mr. Eddy, the boy was walking in file
when a boy behind him punched him in the back and ribs. Goodwin
swung his hand round and hit the boy.
"The defendant took him to a dormitory, told him to touch
his toes and began to strike him violently with a cane. He went
on flogging him, flogging him, flogging him time after time.
Hours afterwards the boy was in a state of delirium."
Mrs. Goodwin said that the bruises on her boy were very obvious
"as if a red hot poker had been used."
Barry Goodwin, the caned boy, and his mother photographed yesterday at Ealing. |
Boy's Story
"I Suppose I Deserved It in One Way" Answer to K.C.
The boy, in evidence, said Mr. Bucknall told him to bend down
and touch his toes after taking down his trousers.
"He then lifted the cane above his head," said the boy,
"and smacked me. I got up yelling and he shouted. 'Get
down.'
"I was in the dormitory for at least ten minutes and then I
went back to my class. I could only sit down on the edge of the
chair."
Cross-examined by Mr. Linton Thorpe, K.C., for the defence, the
boy said he had been caned once previously for horse-play.
Mr. Thorpe: Were you then bullying other boys? -- Yes, just a bit.
Other boys have been caned like this? -- I do not know if they
were hit so hard, but I think they were.
You deserved it? -- I suppose I did in one way.
Mr. Bucknall said he applied the cane with very moderate force
and administered it only four times.
Click to enlarge |
Master's Denials
Counsel: Do you tell the Bench that to-day is the first time a
parent has accused you of sheer brutality? -- Certainly.
Have boys been withdrawn from your school within the last year or
two? -- Yes.
Have they been withdrawn because parents complained of your
treatment of their children? -- One parent seemed very
dissatisfied with my general treatment of his boys and took them
away.
Pointing to someone in court Mr. Eddy said. "I suggest that
this gentleman threatened to give you a good hiding?"
Bucknall: No.
Are you prepared to say to any one of your 134 boys that you
would give similar treatment if he were reported for fighting? --
If they were bullying and had bullied to the extent that this boy
had, I would consider they had deserve it.
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