Chastisement Across the Ages31

The Defence had no easy task. They took the line that Wildman had suffered physical and psychological injuries which affected his brain to the point of fanaticism, and that he quite sincerely believed in his mission to spread the gospel of corporal punishment. To this end he had devoted all his powers, and genuinely felt he was pursuing God’s work; evidence was also produced of his religious inclinations: he taught regularly in Sunday School, and so forth. Interesting for the psychologist was the account given of how Wildman had begun his business: demobilised after the War, he had tried to trade in men’s leatherware, strops, etc.; finding this unremunerative, he had the brainwave of converting the leather into chastisement-straps.

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