Corpun file 7243
Daily Mirror, London, 11 March 1955
Teacher came off worse in a fight for the cane
SCHOOLMASTER Austin Bingley decided that a "truculent" schoolboy deserved punishment.
He produced the cane.
The boy grabbed at it. There was a struggle.
"And I came off worst," Mr. Bingley told Bristol magistrates yesterday.
The story of the master against boy struggle was told at the hearing of an assault summons against Mr. Bingley, of Timberscombe-road, Whitchurch, Bristol.
It was brought on behalf of the boy, Michael Hazell, 14, of Barnstaple-road, Bristol.
The trouble, the magistrates heard, started when Hazell blew a piece of paper through the keyhole of a classroom at Bristol's Connaught-road School.
Tried to Break it
Because of that Mr. Bingley called Hazell into his room.
"I wanted him to apologise in front of my class to show how they should conduct themselves in such a matter," said Mr. Bingley.
"Instead, he became truculent. I told him he would get one stroke of the cane."
Hazell refused to be caned, went on Mr. Bingley. And the boy grabbed the cane and tried to break it.
"He rather surprised me with his strength," said Mr. Bingley. "I was in an embarrassing position.
"The cane was not mine. I borrowed it from another master.
"If it had broken I would have felt the world's worst idiot in having to return it, snapped by a boy."
Mr. Bingley said that Hazell became "very violent," and he hit the boy twice with the cane across the buttocks.
"Hazell cried 'Ow' and continued to fight," added Mr. Bingley. "I realised I was getting nowhere fast."
He said that he appealed to Hazell to take his punishment. Instead, the boy jumped out of the window into the playground.
Answering Mr. J.S. Horsington (for the boy), Mr. Bingley denied he "flogged Hazell round the room."
Mr. Horsington: Did the boy have a severe beating?
Mr. Bingley: I would suggest that I had the worst of the struggle.
The magistrates dismissed the case.
Hazell, they were told, had since been expelled from the school over another matter.
Corpun file 7244
Daily Mirror, London, 12 March 1955
A boy was 'sentenced' to one stroke of the cane and --
Father knocked the teacher's teeth out
Daily Mirror Reporter
A FATHER who burst into a classroom and attacked a teacher was sentenced to two months' gaol yesterday.
He was told by the chairman of the court, at Bristol: "We consider this is very lenient."
The chairman, Mr W.E. Hunt, added: "Schoolmasters are public servants.
"It has always been the practice of the courts to protect them against violence in the performance of their duties."
THE FATHER, Arthur Hazell, of Knowle West, Bristol, admitted assaulting THE TEACHER, Austin Bingley, of Whitchurch, Bristol.
It was stated that Hazell's son, 14, blew some paper pellets through a keyhole into Mr. Bingley's class. When the teacher was going to give him one stroke of the cane, the boy fought him.
Then he jumped through the window -- and returned later with his father and married sister.
The door burst open and the three stormed in, said Mr. W.J. Hutchinson, prosecuting.
THE FATHER hit Mr. Bingley, sending him sprawling over a desk and knocking two teeth out.
THE BOY stopped another pupil from going for help.
HIS SISTER rummaged in a cupboard for the cane.
Hazell, stated to be the father of fifteen children, gave notice of appeal against sentence and was released on bail.
