Some Accounts of birching on the Isle of Man

Author:

The Isle of Man Summary Jurisdiction Act of 1960 introduced a number of significant changes in the use of corporal punishment:

1) Youths under the age of 14 were now to be flogged with the cane rather than the birch.

2) The maximum age of youths who could sentenced to be birched was increased from 18 to 21.

3) In consequence of this increase in age, the construction of the birch was made more formidable. Unlike the bundle of thin switches still employed in mainland prisons, the Isle of Man birch was to be comprised of three or four stout hazel rods, up to a maximum length of 42 inches and a maximum weight of 9 ounces.

Constable W.H. Corlett, dog-handler of the Douglas Police, was appointed bircher-in-chief, and he personally may have suggested the modifications in the design of the birch. Corlett took over the task of inflicting the birch on a permanent basis, and became known to his colleagues as 'the Ghoul'.

Corlett inflicted his first birching on a fourteen-year-old London boy on 1 June 1960. The boy was accused of demanding money with menaces, larcenies, and breaking and entering and was the second in court that morning. However, at 9 a.m. that morning Corlett, knowing that a birching sentence was likely, had bound two birches so that they would have soaked for the statutory two hours by the time the magistrates rose.

The boy was found guilty and the presiding magistrate, Mr W.E. Quayle, ordered him to receiv·e six strokes of the birch across his bare buttocks. The boy was then taken below to the cells, where he was obliged to wait until the morning session had ended. Meanwhile, preparations were made upstairs in the jury retirement room adjacent to the court. The boy was examined by the Police Surgeon and pronounced fit to receive corporal punishment.

The court eventually rose, and after a short recess Quayle and his fellow magistrates, including a local lady, went to the Jury Room to watch the punishment being inflicted.

The boy was brought up by five constables. The room contained a large heavy table used by the jury for their deliberations. As soon as he entered the room the boy was spoken to by the Sergeant. The sentence was read out again and the prisoner was told that the birching was to take place immediately.

The boy was told to bend over the table and his arms and legs were held by three policemen. Corlett moved slowly, deliberately making the boy wait for his ordeal. Then he delivered the first stroke with great force. A policeman present described it as very hard indeed. The lady magistrate held her breath and half turned away. Bill Quayle, however, stood very still and seemingly unmoved. The boy did not scream but grunted. The second stroke brought the same reaction, but the boy turned white and the doctor turned round to examine him. The doctor soon stepped back and told Corlett to continue. The third and fourth strokes produced some spots of blood. As the final two strokes were delivered the boy is reported to have sobbed continually.

(Material from the Daily Express, Daily Mail and People newspapers)

On the Isle of Man magistrates were formerly permitted to order the birching of juvenile offenders. Between 1970 and 1979 12 boys were birched, all across their bare buttocks. The Isle of Man birch is significantly different from the birches used in mainland Britain until 1948, which were bundles of between 9 and 12 slender switches. The Manx birch, in contrast, consisted of 3 or 4 flexible but stout birch rods each about 40 inches long and three-eighths of an inch thick. The rods were lashed together at one end to form a handle and left free at the other in a spray about 6 inches in circumference. The birch is soaked in water before use.

All sentences were imposed by the magistrates of the Douglas Juvenile Court, and up to 12 strokes could be ordered. Sentences in the last decade of use varied between 3 and 9 strokes, 5 or 6 being the most usual number. The birching always took place as soon as possible after sentence had been passed and was inflicted in a neighbouring police station in a cell reserved for the purpose. In the centre of this cell stood a low narrow table, rather like a very high school bench. The boy was not strapped to the table, but his hands and feet were usually held by assisting policemen.

Below are two documentary accounts of Isle of Man birchings:

Joe W., an eighteen-year-old factory worker from Liverpool, was sentenced to six strokes of the birch in 1975. Although wishing to remain anonymous, he was willing to describe his ordeal to this newspaper. During a weekend holiday on the island he got into a brawl in a bar, half-wrecked the joint and fractured somebody's jaw. He was pretty drunk at the time, and doesn't remember the police breaking the fight up, but he remembers waking up in a cell the following morning.

His trial was just a formality. He pleaded guilty, and the judge sentenced him to a birching of six strokes. Had he wasted the court's time by pleading not guilty, he might have been given twelve. Joe was examined by the police doctor, pronounced fit for the birch, and taken down to a room below. The room was unfurnished, save for a few chairs against a wall and a heavy wooden bench. It took three burly police officers to haul Joe across the bench, hold him down, and pull his trousers and underpants off. Joe remembers feeling sick with fear at this moment - to sick to resist.

Moments later he heard a terrific crash, like a thunderbolt, and an explosion ripped through his body as the first stroke of the birch slashed across his naked buttocks. "The pain was bloody awful", recalls Joe, "I almost spewed up. Every stroke felt like it was tearing my arse open".

At one point the police doctor stopped the birching to examine Joe. But he decided that he was strong enough to take the remaining strokes and the birching was resumed. Joe spent the rest of the day and evening in a cell and received medical treatment for his tortured buttocks He returned home the following morning. As to the effectiveness of judicial corporal punishment, Joe reckons that if birching were used on the mainland there'd be a lot less crime in the United Kingdom. 

In March 1972 four Manx boys were convicted of assaulting an 18-year-old prefect from their school, and were sentenced to 5, 5, 4, and 3 strokes of the birch respectively. The 15-year-old sentenced to 3 strokes, Anthony Tyrer, chose to be the first person ever to appeal against a birching sentence, and was subsequently responsible for initiating proceedings in the European Court. On the Isle of Man, however, the result was to prolong his torment for seven weeks until the appeal was dismissed. It was reported that after the punishment the boy limped down the police station steps with tears in his eyes. About his birching, he was reported as saying:

'That policeman really laid it on and swung as hard as he could. It was terrible. I never expected it would hurt so much. Pieces of the birch branches flew all over the room. After the first stroke my dad went berserk and went for the one who had smashed the birch on me, but he couldn't get at him. One or the worst things was being bent over the table with my trousers down. I didn't cry but each blow made me shout. I yelled because it hurt so much'.