Corpun file 19933 at www.corpun.com
News Chronicle, London, 22 March 1939
Girl Should be Spanked
-- Says Judge
"A CHILD of 12 who wants to have her hair permanently waved should be taken over her mother's knee and spanked," said Judge Richardson at the County Court at Sunderland yesterday when a claim against a hairdresser for negligence came before him.
"If a child of this age gets burned while having her hair waved," he said, "I should be inclined to say, 'Serve her jolly well right.'
"It might be more of advantage than disadvantage to be pulled up in her somewhat precocious vanity."
Giving judgment for the defendant, Sarah Jane McGough, hairdresser, of John Street, Sunderland, from whom 12-year-old Ruth Harrison, of Shepherd Street, Millfield, claimed £15, Judge Richardson remarked:
"She must have very foolish parents who spend 3s. 6d. on having her hair permanently waved. It is a foolish waste of money."
The girl alleged that she had been left in a cubicle with electrically heated irons in her hair while the assistant went for lunch. Her allegations were denied.
