Marshland students face crime and punishment

GCSE students came face-to-face with some infamous characters from the dark side of history when they visited a former court and gaol house in Nottingham.

The Year 10 group from Marshland High School, a member of the West Norfolk Academies Trust, have been studying the history of crime and punishment and travelled to the National Justice Museum.

The city’s Grade II* listed Shire Hall includes a Victorian courtroom and Georgian gaol, complete with ancient cells. It has the UK’s largest collection of more than 40,000 justice, crime and punishment artefacts.

“Our students spent the morning learning about punishments, including the stocks, scold’s bridle and branding. They had a lot of fun trying out the stocks and imagining which punishment would be the most effective in crime prevention,” said Head of Humanities Debby Dye.

The students also learned about the crank, a piece of machinery serving no purpose other than to exhaust and punish a prisoner. They had to turn the handle up to 15,000 times a day and it was the warder’s job to set it to be easier or harder via the screws. Hence the slang term for a prison warder.

They also learned about the Oubliette, which was a pit where prisoners were left to starve to death.

The afternoon session saw students taking part in an interactive courtroom workshop examining the case of Derek Bentley. He was hanged in 1953 for the murder of a policeman during a burglary, despite not being the person who pulled the trigger.

The jury found him guilty based largely on the ambiguous statement ‘let him have it’ which Bentley shouted to an accomplice. Prosecutors said it was an order to shoot, while the defence lawyer said Bentley meant for him to surrender. 

The judge at the time said Bentley was ‘mentally aiding’ the murder and he was sentenced to death at the age of 19. His accomplice was jailed and released in 1963.

Students from Marshland High School, West Walton,had to examine the case fully and prepare and present a trial based on the available evidence surrounding the case - and in this instance he was found not guilty.

Derek Bentley was posthumously granted a royal pardon in 1993 in a move reflecting changing attitudes. Five years later, his conviction was quashed completely.