Corpun file 18607

The Times, London, 13 August 1955

Girl “spanked” in bus

Conductor fined

A bus conductor who was said to have put a girl of 19 over his knee and spanked her was fined £3 and ordered to pay £2 2s. costs, when he appeared at Greenwich yesterday on a summons for failing to behave in a civil and orderly manner while employed as the conductor on a 185 bus on the Camberwell Green to Blackwall Tunnel route. He is Douglas Ernest Haven, of Kimpton Road, Camberwell.

The girl, Miss Shirley Ann Ellison, a clerk, of Kimeridge Road, Mottingham, Kent, said that the bus, on which she was the only passenger, started without waiting for a young couple who were running to catch it. The conductor made some comment about “the public expects you to wait all day”, and she remarked that the public should put their foot down. He replied: “You know what we do with little girls who put their foot down: we put them over our knees and spank them.”

Miss Ellison said that she told Haven that it would “take a man to do that.” She added: “Then he got me over his knee and spanked me. I slapped his face and took his number.” In a struggle she kicked Haven on the shin and he kicked her three or four times. When the bus reached Catford she had a blackout, and Haven took her arm and made her get off the bus.

Haven, in evidence, said that he spanked Miss Ellison, but denied that he kicked her. It was all done in fun.