Greville Janner: A letter from a convict and a standing ovation from MPs
Posted: May 24, 2014 Filed under: Abuse, Labour Party, Westminster Leave a commentIn 1991 Greville Janner, the Labour MP for Leicester West, became the first MP in history to be accused of child sexual abuse in a court of law. (Guardian 31/10/91)
The Cyril Smith case has shown that allegations against an MP or VIP would never normally have got as far as court, but the allegations against Janner were raised indirectly during the trial of the paedophile social worker Frank Beck.
After Beck’s trial had finished, Janner returned to the House of Commons to declare his innocence and received a standing ovation from MPs.
And what proof did Janner have to convince other MPs of his innocence?
Well, apparently he had received a letter from a convicted criminal, a cellmate of Frank Beck, which said Beck intended to ‘frame’ Janner.
The letter was never produced as evidence by Janner, his word alone was good enough for MPs to believe…
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Judge in 1991 Leicestershire sex abuse case on ‘people in high places’
Posted: May 24, 2014 Filed under: Abuse, Westminster | Tags: edwin jowitt, francis sheridan, frank beck, george lincoln, greville janner, peter jaynes 3 CommentsIn the 1991 trial of Frank Beck in Leicestershire, the judge in the case, Mr Justice Edwin Jowitt, intervened to prevent ‘people in high places’ being named. Here are reports from the time. All names of victims, printed in the original articles and reproduced on Nexis, have been redacted.
Who were the ‘people in high places’ being protected? I will add further articles relating to Greville Janner and his claims that Beck was trying to frame him, later.
Press Association
September 30, 1991, Monday
SEX ABUSE CASE JUDGE STEPS IN OVER ‘TOP NAMES’
SECTION: HOME NEWS
LENGTH: 438 words
A judge intervened in the Leicestershire child sex abuse trial today to prevent names of “people in high places” being revealed. A former social worker was about to name a man said to have had homosexual contact with a boy in care when High Court judge Mr Justice Edwin Jowitt stepped in. He told counsel representing former children’s homes head Frank Beck, who faces 29 charges of physical and sexual abuse: “Are names relevant? “Allegations are made, not necessarily by the people who know, and repeated second-hand against people who are not here to defend themselves. “Counsel have a responsibility not to drag in names of people who are not here to say anything about it.” Mr Francis Sheridan, one of two barristers defending Beck, replied he would continue the questioning “in another way”. Former social worker Mr D, 39, had said he was the care officer of a youth in care named as Mr A [name redacted] who had boasted of being a rent boy. Mr Sheridan asked: “Did he boast of having friends in high places?” Mr D replied: “Yes.” Mr Sheridan asked: “Did he tell you who those were?” At this stage the judge intervened. Mr Sheridan later asked Mr D: “Did you talk about one person in high places or more than one?” Mr D replied: “One. He just knew him and had contact with him.” He said that Beck knew about the relationship and he had raised it with him. Sheridan said: “Did he not make it clear he would raise it with the director of social services, Dorothy Edwards?” “Yes,” he replied. “I think most of the conversations which took place at that time were between Paul and Frank directly.” He said of Beck: “He was certainly going to make sure that action was going to be taken to sever the contact.” Mr D also said the person in question turned up at the children’s home, with a bicycle as a present for the boy. He said the incident happened sometime in mid-1977. Sheridan asked: “And he was sent packing by Frank Beck who told him bluntly no more contact?” Mr D said: “I wasn’t present when the person arrived but that was my understanding when Frank Beck reported back to team meetings.” Mr D earlier alleged he was sexually abused by Frank Beck. Beck, 49, formerly of Braunstone, Leicester, is in the dock alongside former social workers Peter Jaynes, 42, and George Lincoln, 39. Jaynes, of Chatham, Kent, denies three offences of physical and sexual abuse and Lincoln, of Sudbury, Suffolk, denies an allegation of buggery. The offences were allegedly committed between 1974 and 1986. The trial at Leicester Crown Court was adjourned until tomorrow.
The Times
October 1, 1991, Tuesday
Child case judge halts naming of ‘abuser’
SECTION: Home news
LENGTH: 213 words
A High Court judge intervened in the Leicestershire child sex abuse trial yesterday to prevent the names of ”people in high places” being disclosed.
A former social worker was about to mention he name of a man feared to have had homosexual contact with a boy who was in care when Mr Justice Jowitt interrupted, asking: ”Are names relevant? Allegations are made, not necessarily by the people who know, and repeated second-hand against people who are not here to defend themselves.”
The judge told defence lawyers: ”Counsel have a responsibility not to drag in names of people who are not here to say anything about it.”
Francis Sheridan, one of two barristers representing Frank Beck, a former head of a children’s home who faces 29 charges of physical and sexual abuse, replied that he would continue his questioning ”in another way”.
Mr Beck, aged 49, formerly of Braunstone, Leicester, is charged along with two social workers, Peter Jaynes, aged 42 and George Lincoln, aged 39. Mr Jaynes, of Chatham, Kent, denies three charges of physical and sexual abuse and Mr Lincoln, of Sudbury, Suffolk, denies a charge of buggery. The offences are alleged to have been committed between 1974 and 1986.
The trial at Leicester crown court continues today.
The Independent (London)
October 1, 1991, Tuesday
Judge prevents naming of ‘people in high places’
SECTION: HOME NEWS PAGE; Page 2
LENGTH: 405 words
A JUDGE intervened in the Leicestershire child sex abuse trial yesterday to prevent the names of ”people in high places” being revealed.
At Leicester Crown Court, a former social worker was about to name a man said to have had sexual contact with a boy in care when Mr Justice Edwin Jowitt stepped in.
He told counsel representing Frank Beck, 49, a former children’s homes head, formerly of Braunstone, Leicestershire, who denies 29 charges of physical and sexual abuse: ”Are names relevant? Allegations are made, not necessarily by the people who know, and repeated second-hand against people who are not here to defend themselves.
”Counsel have a responsibility not to drag in names of people who are not here to say anything about it,” he said.
Francis Sheridan, one of two barristers defending Mr Beck, replied he would continue the questioning ”in another way”.
Mr D, 39, a former social worker, had said he was the care officer of a youth named as Mr A, who had boasted of being a rent boy.
Mr Sheridan asked: ”Did he boast of having friends in high places?”
Mr D replied: ”Yes.”
Mr Sheridan asked: ”Did he tell you who those were?” At this point, the judge intervened.
Mr Sheridan later asked Mr D: ”Did you talk about one person in high places or more than one?”
Mr D replied: ”One. He just knew him and had contact with him.” He said that Mr Beck knew about the relationship and he had raised it with him.
Mr Sheridan said: ”Did he not make it clear he would raise it with the director of social services?” ”Yes,” Mr D replied. ”I think most of the conversations which took place at that time were between Paul and Frank directly.”
Mr D said the person in question turned up at the children’s home in mid-1977 with a bicycle as a present for the boy.
Mr Sheridan asked: ”And he was sent packing by Frank Beck, who told him bluntly ‘no more contact’?”
Mr D said: ”I wasn’t present when the person arrived but that was my understanding when Frank Beck reported back to team meetings.”
Also charged are Peter Jaynes, 42, of Chatham, Kent, who denies three offences of physical and sexual abuse, and George Lincoln, 39, of Sudbury, Suffolk, who denies an allegation of buggery. Both are former social workers.
All the offences were allegedly committed between 1974 and 1986. The trial continues today.
The Independent (London)
October 4, 1991, Friday
Home head ‘humiliated social worker’
SECTION: HOME NEWS PAGE; Page 2
LENGTH: 313 words
A SOCIAL worker yesterday told the Leicestershire child sex abuse trial how he was ”humiliated and degraded” by his boss during so-called supervision sessions.
Mr K [name redacted], 40, told Leicester Crown Court how former children’s home head Frank Beck, 49, subjected him to repeated sexual assaults culminating in buggery.
Mr K, now a child care officer in Scotland, said he had ”felt degraded, debased, humiliated, de-humanised”. He told the jury trying Mr Beck and two other social workers how Mr Beck would organise ”supervision sessions” at the Beeches children’s home in Leicester.
Mr K, who began his social work career at the home aged 28, said these soon turned into homosexual sex sessions.
He said ”personal growth therapy” soon began to be dominated by questions of sexuality. ”It was hugging initially, fondling . . . It ended up with either one or both of us in a state of undress.”
Mr K said the sessions began to include masturbation. ”It developed, if that’s the correct phrase, into a period of oral sex.”
Peter Joyce QC, for the prosecution, asked why Mr Erskine became involved in the sex acts.
Mr K said: ”He used threats, physical assault and I felt he used his ability to manipulate the staff and residents to make life in work rather difficult for me.” He said he was threatened by Mr Beck with having his social work probationary period revoked.
The witness said he was slapped by Mr Beck in front of both other staff and children at the home.
He said once he tried to resist Mr Beck, but ”he physically took my clothes off, put my genitals in his mouth and bit very hard”.
Mr Beck denies 30 charges of physical and sexual assault against children in his care and other staff. Two former deputies, Peter Jaynes, 42, and George Lincoln, 39, deny a total of four charges.
The trial continues.
The Independent (London)
November 12, 1991, Tuesday
Witness in abuse trial ‘kept letters from MP’
SECTION: HOME NEWS PAGE; Page 4
LENGTH: 253 words
THE LABOUR MP Greville Janner sent a 13-year-old boy a letter after they allegedly slept together, the Leicestershire child sex abuse trial was told yesterday.
The letter – signed ”Safe journey, Love Greville” and dated 7 July 1975 – was produced in court when Mr B [name redacted], now 30, was giving evidence.
Mr B said he had kept other letters from the 63-year-old MP for Leicester West during their two-year affair.
Leicester Crown Court was told by Mr A that he was sexually abused by Mr Janner, a QC, over a two-year period while he was in the care of social services.
Mr B said he twice stayed at Mr Janner’s home in London, and that various sexual acts took place there and at hotels around the country.
He was giving evidence on behalf of former children’s homes chief Frank Beck, 49, who has denied 27 charges of physical and sexual abuse on children and former members of staff.
Mr B, who was transferred to a home run by Mr Beck after the alleged abuse by Mr Janner, said he was never ill- treated by Mr Beck.
He was asked why he had written to Mr Janner after Mr Beck’s arrest for a reference for the defendant.
He replied: ”I believe Mr Beck to be innocent and should not be treated in the way he is being treated and Mr Janner may have been able to help him in some way.”
Also accused are Mr Beck’s former deputy Peter Jaynes, 42, who denies three offences involving children, and George Lincoln, 39, who denies one charge.
The trial was adjourned until today.
A Kind of Hush
Posted: May 15, 2014 Filed under: Abuse, Videos 1 CommentImportant viewing.
The morning after the broadcast of ‘Secret Life of a Paedophile’ in 1994, Richard Johnson, the author of the book A Kind of Hush, rang in to the Inside Story team to say that at 1.30 am he had received a phone call from ‘Mick’ (who the central character in A Kind of Hush is based on) to say that the documentary had vindicated him and everything he had told Richard about many years before. According to Richard Johnson the book was loosely based on a paedophile network that included Peter Righton, a Labour MP, a well known Labour politician, and a central figure allegedly named as a major paedophile in Islington children’s homes.
This information is based on written evidence seen at first hand by Peter McKelvie.
A Meeting With Norman Baker
Posted: May 15, 2014 Filed under: Abuse, Liberal Democrats, PIE, Westminster Leave a commentThis is extremely important – please do read. The Home Office are not taking this seriously – proper action needs to be taken with VIPs named in Parliament – then the government will be unable to ignore public outrage.
Report of the meeting
The Minister advised that he would be available for ten minutes as he had another important appointment. He listed a number of items that he could not discuss as these were not the direct responsibility of the Home Office – such as any current police investigations and individual cases. He also stated that the National Group on Sexual Violence against Children and Vulnerable People had been set up as a national response to child sexual exploitation. PM assured him that as former child protection managers neither he…
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Article from Telegraph – Simon Danczuk on child sex allegations involving senior Westminster figures
Posted: May 15, 2014 Filed under: Abuse, Labour Party, Westminster | Tags: child abuse, child abusers in parliament, cyril smith, elm guest house, simon danczuk, westminster 1 CommentThe following article does not seem to be available online to read – I believe it is very significant, so am posting it here.
The Daily Telegraph (London)
May 5, 2014 Monday
Edition 1;
National Edition
Government urged to reassure public about child sex claims
BYLINE: Peter Dominiczak
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 4
LENGTH: 230 words
MINISTERS must “reassure the public” about a series of child sex investigations involving Westminster politicians, the Labour MP who exposed Cyril Smith’s behaviour said yesterday.
Simon Danczuk, the MP for Rochdale, last month published a book on Smith which reignited the scandal over the former Liberal MP, who used his power and influence to abuse hundreds of boys for more than four decades.
However, Mr Danczuk has also disclosed details of allegations about two other senior Westminster figures who have been accused of historic abuse.
Mr Danczuk said that he has now been contacted by police officers about a case involving a senior Labour politician and said that officers are taking the allegations “extremely seriously”.
He has also disclosed that during the course of his investigation into Smith, who died in 2010, he interviewed a man who was sexually abused by the MP at the Elm Guest House in Barnes, London, when he was 16. The man gave him the name of another parliamentarian who had visited the guesthouse, describing him as a “much bigger fish” and significantly “higher up the food chain”. Mr Danczuk yesterday said that with so many investigations under way, the Government needs to make a public statement about the allegations.
“We need them to reassure the public that the police are getting adequate resources to carry out these investigations,” he said.
Peter Righton’s Diaries: Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears and Michael Davidson – Updated 27/8/15
Posted: May 11, 2014 Filed under: Abuse, Benjamin Britten, PIE | Tags: aldeburgh, Benjamin Britten, donald mitchell, eileen fairweather, liz davies, lord henniker, michael davidson, paedophile information exchange, peter pears, peter righton, suffolk, tom watson 22 Comments[EDIT: Since the publication of this post, Kevin Gosling, Director of Communications at the Britten-Pears Foundation, has responded. You can read his response here.]
[NEW EDIT: When I originally posted this, I omitted information about Peter Righton’s lover Richard Alston, as he was awaiting trial for offences against children. Since this has happened and Alston has been found guilty (see the reports from the trial here), I am now including more information about the references to Alston in Donald Mitchell’s book. There is more to be established about the precise nature of the relationship between Alston and Mitchell.]
I am publishing on here some information communicated to me by Tom Watson MP’s source on Peter Righton and networks of child abusers, which led to the infamous question from Watson to the Prime Minister on October 24th 2012 in which Watson identified a high-level paedophile ring linked to the aide of a former Prime Minister and thus to 10 Downing Street. Watson’s source is a former child protection officer who currently does not wish to be identified by name, but was involved in the investigations into leading paedophile and key Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) member Righton (on whom, see this documentary, this article in the Mirror, this Guardian article by Nick Davies, this article by Liz Davies, this article by Christian Wolmar, and the series of articles to be found on the Spotlight and Needle blogs). .
As detailed by Watson himself, after Righton’s 1992 conviction on child pornography, he moved to live in a cottage on the estate of the eighth Lord Henniker, in Thornham Magna, North Suffolk, and was allowed to use the estate for special holidays for vulnerable children from Islington (at the very time when there was an epidemic of child abuse in Islington care homes – see here and here for vital material from the journalist Eileen Fairweather and former social worker Liz Davies (now Reader at London Metropolitan University) who brought the scandal to public attention). The Chief Constable of Suffolk visited Henniker personally to warn him that Righton was a career paedophile, but he ignored this advice, and Righton was able to continue hosting children on the estate until his death in 2008. Just this week one man has spoken out about his experiences being trafficked around the country to be abused by strangers whilst in the Suffolk care system, and named Righton as part of the operation.
The important information is the following: in Righton’s diaries, he frequently referred to Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears and Michael Davidson as ‘fellow boy-lovers’, and also spoke of how important to him (Righton) were their get-togethers at Snape Maltings. Both Richard Alston and Peter Righton is also thanked in the preface to Donald Mitchell’s book Britten and Auden in the Thirties: The Year 1936: The T.S. Eliot Memorial Lectures delivered in the University of Kent at Canterbury in November 1979 (London: Faber, 1981):
I am much indebted to Richard Alston without whose dedicated editorial assistance I should have found it difficult to see this revised edition through the press. [….] and to Peter Righton for correcting proofs.
Righton is also listed as a translator of some text in Mitchell’s facsimile edition of Mahler’s Seventh Symphony (Amsterdam: Rosbeek Publishers, 1995), and of some of Donald Mitchell and Andrew Nicholson (eds), The Mahler Companion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999). Mitchell was very close to Britten, edited the first major study of his work, Benjamin Britten : a commentary on his works from a group of specialists (London: Rockliff, 1952), and later became Britten’s principal publisher at Faber Music, becoming a senior trustee of the Britten-Pears Foundation after Britten’s death in 1976. He has also been general editor of the major collections of Britten’s letters and diaries published by Faber & Faber.
As I mentioned in my earlier article on Clifford Hindley, various biographers, including the late Humphrey Carpenter in his Benjamin Britten: A Biography (London: Faber & Faber, 1992), John Bridcut in Britten’s Children (London: Faber & Faber, 2006), and Paul Kildea in Benjamin Britten: A Life in the Twentieth Century (London: Allen Lane, 2013) have investigated at some length whether there was anything untoward in Britten’s relationships with the numerous boys with whom he worked for performances of his operas, works of children’s choirs, and so on. Only a small amount of evidence has been uncovered of any exploitation through enactment of these desires, including the testimony of Harry Morris, who did accuse Britten of abuse (see Bridcut, Britten’s Children, pp. 46-53), and also various accounts chronicled by Bridcut of naked swimming and sharing of beds with boys aged as young as 11.
There is no question about the proclivities or activities of journalist Michael Davidson (1897-1976). His 1962 autobiography The World, The Flesh and Myself (London: Arthur Barker, 1962) begins with the line ‘This is the life story of a lover of boys’, whilst his later memoir Some Boys (London: David Bruce & Watson, 1972) is nothing less than a stomach-churning account of international child sex tourism and assault, presented quite shamelessly. Below I reproduce scanned copies of the chapter of the book dealing with London. Davidson’s brother-in-law Christopher Southward taught violin at Gresham School, in the music department run by Walter Greatorex, who taught Britten at the school; Greatorex introduced the 26-year old Davidson to the then 16-year old W.H. Auden (Neil Powell, Benjamin Britten: A Life for Music (London: Hutchinson, 2013), pp. 29-31).
There is other information I am not in a position to print here for legal reasons; furthermore the information from Righton’s diaries of course constitutes claims rather than yet-proven allegations. The possibility that Britten and Pears were part of Righton’s circle (and thus perhaps also to other members of PIE) does not in itself prove anything, but undoubtedly this needs to be investigated, together with the meetings in Snape Maltings. But in order to help get to the bottom of the networks of abusers who have corrupted British society and childhood for decades, I would implore anyone with further information on the connections between and activities of Righton, Britten, Pears and Davidson to come forward if they feel ready to do so (I am happy to let anyone know by private e-mail – ian@ianpace.com – police or other contacts to whom they could speak).
I will add further information at a later date.
Female Child Sex Abusers
Posted: May 8, 2014 Filed under: Abuse, Videos 3 CommentsVery difficult to watch, but extremely important in place of crass stereotypes. See also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPDL78e8UAs and especially the following: http://www.female-offenders.com/Safehouse/2010/09/toptenmythsaboutfemalesexoffenders.html
Male victims of abuse, sexual crimes, or domestic violence should be treated with the same degree of sympathy as female victims, yet this is rarely the case (especially when the perpetrators are female), and nor do they receive much in the way of practical support. If you believe this is wrong, that all such things are equally bad when the victim is male and/or the perpetrator is female, however much such things are trivialised in popular culture and the mainstream media (with teenage male victims of female abuse portrayed as ‘getting lucky’, and female-to-male domestic violence treated as something to applaud as a supposed form of empowerment), then please do sign both of these petitions.
It has more recently become clearer to me just the extent to which male victims face ridicule, complete disbelief, hostility, and often attempts to shift the blame upon them. Please support extending full help and support in a gender-neutral fashion.
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/55331
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/the-ministry-of-justice-extend-the-definition-of-rape-to-include-female-offenders
Criminal abuse in the classroom as portrayed by D.H. Lawrence
Posted: May 4, 2014 Filed under: Abuse | Tags: child abuse, d.h. lawrence, physical abuse 1 CommentThere were teachers like this in many schools until quite recently. Many of them (including some I have known) would now be in prison for what they did.
I am no fan of D.H. Lawrence, finding his preaching, stentorian tone grating a lot of the time, and also believe his politics to have come close to fascism. To some extent he seems to justify the actions of Ursula here. I find this one of the most disturbing passages I have read in much mainstream literature, but likely quite accurate in terms of how easily children could be dehumanised by teachers who saw them as ‘things’. Before we sentimentalise teachers past and present, let’s remember how many there have been who used their positions as an opportunity to get high off their own power and give an outlet to their own hatred, taking it out on defenceless children.
From D.H. Lawrence, The Rainbow (1915)
She knew by now her enemies in the class. The one she hated most was Williams. He was a sort of detective, not bad enough to be so classed. He could read with fluency, and had plenty of cunning intelligence. But he could not keep still. And he had a kind of sickness very repulsive to a sensitive girl, something cunning and etiolated and degenerate. Once he had thrown an ink-well at her, in one of his mad little rages. Twice he had run home out of class. He was a well-known character.
And he grinned up his sleeve at this girl teacher, sometimes hanging round her to fawn on her. But this made her dislike him more. He had a kind of leech-like power.
From one of the children she took a supple cane, and this she determined to use when real occasion came. One morning, at composition, she said to the boy Williams:
“ Why have you made this blot?”
“ Please, miss, it fell off my pen”, he whined out, in the mocking voice that he was so clever in using. The boys near snorted with laughter. For Williams was an actor, he could tickle the feelings of his hearers subtly. Particularly he could tickle the children with him into ridiculing his teacher, or indeed, any authority of which he was not afraid. He had that peculiar gaol instinct.
“Then you must stay in and finish another page of composition,” said the teacher.
This was against her usual sense of justice, and the boy resented it derisively. At twelve o’clock she caught him slinking out.
“ Williams, Sit Down”, she said.
And there she sat, and there he sat, alone opposite to her, on the back desk, looking up at her with his furtive eyes every minute.
“Please miss, I’ve got to go on an errand”, he called out insolently.
“Bring me your book,” said Ursula.
The boy came out. Flapping his book along the desks, he had not written a line.
“Go back and do the writing you have to do,” said Ursula. And she sat at her desk, trying to correct books. She was trembling and upset. And for an hour the miserable boy writhed and grinned in his seat. At the end of that time he had done five lines.
“As it is late now,” said Ursula, “you will finish the rest this evening.”
The boy kicked his way insolently down the passage.
The afternoon came again. Williams was there, glancing at her, and her heart beat thick, for she ducked his whitish head under the desk, and attracted the attention of other boys.
“Williams,” she said, gathering her courage, for it was critical now to speak to him, “what are you doing?”
He lifted his face, the sore-rimmed eyes half smiling. There was something intrinsically indecent about him. Ursula shrank away.
“Nothing,’ he replied, feeling a triumph.
“What are you doing ? ” she repeated, her heart-beat suffocating her.
“Nothing,” replied the boy, insolently, aggrieved, comic.
“If I speak to you again, you must go down to Mr. Harby,” she said.
But this boy was a match even for Mr. Harby. He was so persistent, so cringing, and flexible, he howled so when he was hurt, that the master hated more the teacher who sent him than he hated the boy himself. For of the boy he was sick of the sight. Which Williams knew. He grinned visibly.
Ursula turned to the map again, to go on with the geography lesson. But there was a little ferment in the class. Williams’ spirit infected them all. She heard a scuffle, and then she trembled inwardly. If they all turned on her this time, she was beaten.
” Please, Miss ” called a voice in distress.
She turned round. One of the boys she liked was ruefully holding out a torn celluloid collar. She heard the complaint, feeling futile.
” Go in front, Wright,” she said.
She was trembling in every fibre. A big, sullen boy, not bad but very difficult, slouched out to the front. She went on with the lesson, aware that Williams was making faces at Wright, and that Wright was grinning behind her. She was afraid. She turned to the map again. And she was afraid.
” Please, Miss, Williams ” came a sharp cry, and a boy on the back row was standing up, with drawn, painted brows, half a mocking grin on his pain, half real resentment against Williams ” Please, Miss, he’s nipped me,” and he rubbed his leg ruefully.
” Come in front, Williams,” she said.
The rat-like boy sat with his pale smile and did not move.
” Come in front,” she repeated, definite now.
” I shan’t,” he cried, snarling, rat-like, grinning. Something went click in Ursula’s soul. Her face and eyes set, she went through the class straight. The boy cowered before her glowering, fixed eyes. But she advanced on him, seized him by the arm, and dragged him from his seat. He clung to the form. It was the battle between him and her. Her instinct had suddenly become calm and quick. She jerked him from his grip, and dragged him, struggling and kicking, to the front. He kicked her several times, and clung to the forms as he passed, but she went on. The class was on its feet in excitement. She saw it, but made no move.
She knew if she let go the boy he would dash to the door. Already he had run home once out of her class. So she snatched her cane from the desk, and brought it down on him. He was writhing and kicking. She saw his face beneath her, white, with eyes like the eyes of a fish, stony, yet full of hate and horrible fear. And she loathed him, the hideous writhing thing that was nearly too much for her. In horror lest he should overcome her, and yet at the heart quite calm, she brought down the cane again and again, whilst he struggled making inarticulate noises, and lunging vicious kicks at her. With one hand she managed to hold him, and now and then the cane came down on him. He writhed, like a mad thing. But the pain of the strokes cut through his writhing, vicious, coward’s courage, bit deeper till at last, with a long whimper that became a yell, he went limp. She let him go, and he rushed at her, his teeth and eyes glinting. There was a second of agonized terror in her heart : he was a beast thing. Then she caught him, and the cane came down on him. A few times, madly, in a frenzy, he lunged and writhed, to kick her. But again the cane broke him, he sank with a howling yell on the floor, and like a beaten beast lay there yelling.
Mr. Harby had rushed up towards the end of this performance.
” What’s the matter? ” he roared.
Ursula felt as if something were going to break in her.
” I’ve thrashed him,” she said, her breast heaving, forcing out the words on the last breath. The headmaster stood choked with rage, helpless. She looked at the writhing, howling figure on the floor.
” Get up,” she said. The thing writhed away from her. She took a step forward. She had realized the presence of the headmaster for one second, and then she was oblivious of it again.
” Get up,” she said. And with a little dart the boy was on his feet. His yelling dropped to a mad blubber. He had been in a frenzy.
” Go and stand by the radiator,” she said.
As if mechanically, blubbering, he went.
.The headmaster stood robbed of movement or speech. His face was yellow, his hands twitched convulsively. But Ursula stood stiff not far from him. Nothing could touch her now: she was beyond Mr. Harby. She was as if violated to death.
The headmaster muttered something, turned, and went down the room, whence, from the far end, he was heard roaring in a mad rage at his own class.
The boy blubbered wildly by, the radiator. Ursula looked at the class. There were fifty pale, still faces watching her, a hundred round eyes fixed on her in an attentive, expressionless stare.
” Give out the history readers,” she said to the monitors.
There was dead silence. As she stood there, she could hear again the ticking of the clock, and the chock of piles of books taken out of the low cupboard. Then came the faint flap of books on the desks. The children passed in silence, their hands working in unison. They were no longer a pack, but each one separated into a silent, closed thing.