Evening News, London, 2 April 1947

Birch for boy of 13

Broke Into Churches

A 13-year-old boy is to receive four strokes of the birch under an order made to-day at Margate Juvenile Court. Use of the birch has not been made at Margate for about 20 years. The boy pleaded guilty to breaking into three churches, stealing from an offertory box and breaking into a house.

Evening News, London, 17 April 1947

'Savage Attack' On Police Matron

Labourer who Robbed her 'Deserved Birch'

FOR robbing with violence Mrs. Caroline Ellmer, a police matron, as she was walking along a lonely path known as Lovers'-lane, Finchley, Joseph Henry Stacy, aged 22, labourer, was at the Old Bailey to-day sent to prison for two years.

He was found guilty of what the Recorder (Sir Gerald Dodson) described as a "savage attack upon an unsuspecting woman." He added: "If you were fit for the birch, I should not hesitate to order you to be birched."

Evidence was given that Mrs. Ellmer, who lives at Nether Court-avenue, West Finchley, was on her way home from a cinema when she was hit on the head and seriously injured. She was unable to identify her assailant. Stacy was found to have her handbag.