Teacher ‘slippered girl six times’

THE mother of a teenage girl has described how her daughter was beaten across the bare bottom by a teacher. Then they all went downstairs for a cup of coffee, Carlisle Crown Court heard. And the mother claimed she was asked to write a note saying that the spanking had done her daughter good.

The teacher is Colin West, 44, of Millgarth West Woodside, Wigton. He denies six charges of indecently assaulting four girls, aged between 11 and 14, and four charges of assaulting girls, aged between 13 and 14, causing them actual bodily harm. The offences are alleged to have been committed by West, the head of the Lower school at St. Aidan’s School, Carlisle between September 1,1980, and July 16 1982. Mrs. Helen Grindrod, Q.C., Prosecuting, said that in 1980 four girls had been involved in shoplifting, but the police had decided not to prosecute them. West visited the house of one of the girls - 14 year-old Miss B. Her mother Mrs. B, said "He said my daughter had been in a bit of bother and she could either be slippered - or be shown up in front of the school. "She chose to be slippered." West then told the girl to get changed into her nightclothes. "He asked her to bend over and he pulled her nightie up." said Mrs. B.

"He told her to pull her pants down. Then he pulled out this trainer. He slippered her six times across the backside. "She screamed and jumped up from the bed after the first blow. "He then got a tube of cream out from the trainer box and rubbed some on." After the punishment, Mrs. B. said her daughter’s bottom was purple and swollen.

While they were having coffee, West showed Mrs. B a letter from the parents of another pupil who bad had the same treatment as Miss B. "I read it and he then asked me if I would write one and give it to Miss B to bring to school," said Mrs. B. She agreed. She told the court she had not protested at all at the time because she had not questioned West's right to do it. Mrs. B said she thought that method of corporal punishment must be normal if he had used it.

The following day at school West had asked the girl if her bottom was all right. He looked at it and said it was. The court was told that another girl involved in the shoplifting gang -- l4 -- year-old Miss C - had received similar treatment from West in her home. He had again told the girl to get changed into her nightclothes. "Mr. West got some cream out of a shoe box and rubbed it on saying he was doing it so that it would not hurt as much," said Miss C. "Then he got a training shoe out and slippered me six times with it." "He sort of took a running jump at me." West then rubbed more cream on the girl’s bottom. The next day at school West asked her if he could rub some more cream on her bottom. She refused. Earlier, the court heard that another girl -13 year-old Miss A - had been spanked on her bare bottom for not working hard enough at school. Her punishment had been entered into the school punishment book at the time of the incident in her home. But the book went missing in August 1982 - a month after the girl’s mother complained to assistant director of education Ray Marriott.

Mrs. A said she had gone with three other parents to ask if this was the usual way corporal was administered in county schools. Mr. Marriott had told the delegation that it was not and suggested they should go to the police. The case continues.

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