Ex-schoolboy awarded £2,000 a whack for ‘brutal’ caning after lengthy court case
£2,000
A WHACK
Cash
deal for school caning
A FORMER public schoolboy was awarded £8,000 damages
after a brutal caning from his headmaster.
“Four of the best” left six-inch weals across
15-year-old Matthew Prince’s buttocks, causing heavy bruising and swelling.
The £2,000-a-stroke compensation is to be paid out by
the Government following a nine-year legal battle. But last night campaigners
against corporal punishment slammed the out-of-court settlement.
They claimed it would allow caning – banned in state
school five years ago – to continue in private schools.
Matthew, of Hove, Sussex, was whacked in
1983 at Brighton College for allegedly scribbling over a classmate’s book.
Police later decided not to prosecute head Willaim
Blackshaw for assault.
Degrading
But fifth-former Matthew and his parents took out a
private summons.
When this was rejected by a judge, his lawyers took
the case to the European Court of Human Rights.
They claimed that the caning was “inhuman and
degrading”.
Peter Newell, of End Physical Punishment of Children,
said last night: “It would have been treated as child abuse in any other
context.”
But Mr Blackshaw, now retired, slammed the
compensation award.
He said: “I’m disgusted the Government has given in
and paid this slush money.
“I haven’t changed my views on the sparing use of
corporal punishment. The short, sharp shock has its merits.”
As published in the Daily
Mirror, 14 November 1992.
Picture (a re-enactment of what Matthew’s
bottom might have looked like) credit: Sting
Pictures
Traditionalschooldiscipline@gmail.com
A daily 6 of the best, at boarding school I must have averaged that, is a million quid a term!
ReplyDeleteI only did a year, so £3m should cover it...