When the first of the new-style 'female correctional units' opened at Norton Parva there had been many sceptics. But it had proved its worth. It had soon become apparent that relatively few of the inmates ever offended again. Several other similar units for women aged between sixteen and thirty-five had now been set up, but Norton Parva still had a reputation for the strictest discipline. Contrary to initial expectations it had been found that the regime was most effective on middle-class 'white collar' criminals. The sudden transition from their comfortable, serene existence to an environment where a momentary lapse might lead to their bare bottom being caned had a most salutary effect.

Twenty year old Melissa Scott-Lascelles was a typical inmate of this type. Something of a 'Sloane ranger', she had been the secretary/personal assistant to the director of a large insurance company. With her boyfriend she had planned a computer scam to transfer large amounts of money to their accounts. It had all gone wrong. The boyfriend was doing five years at Wandsworth, and Melissa had been sentenced to a year at Norton Parva.

It had all come as a tremendous shock to her. Her very expensive lawyer had assured her that she would be acquitted or, at worse, receive only a suspended sentence. The journey from Court, handcuffed to a foul-mouthed prostitute, had been a purgatory. And being stripped on arrival, humiliatingly body-searched and then made to dress in the school-type uniform worn by Norton Parva inmates was worse. The petite redhead, scarcely out of her teens, could almost have been taken for a real schoolgirl in her new uniform.

Melissa passed her first few days inside in a daze of pure misery. She had never liked taking orders from anyone, but now she found that when the staff said 'Jump' she had better leap as high as she could. All staff members carried leather straps with them and used them for immediate punishment of minor offences. And on only her second day Melissa found out that her own bottom was not immune. She had lost her way back to her cell after dinner and had asked a warder for directions.

The warder had told her, but not before she had administered six strokes of the leather strap across Melissa's blue school panties. It was the first time that Melissa's bottom had ever felt anything more than her boyfriend's love taps and she stumbled back to her cell in floods of tears after the infliction, with both hands up the back of her skirt, pressed to her smarting bottom.

Few of the other inmates had much sympathy for the wretched newcomer. She was regarded as stuck up and spoilt. The only friend she had made was her cellmate, Sharon Holden. Sharon was from a completely different background to the former secretary. Four years older than Melissa, she had been in and out of institutions and reform schools of various kinds ever since the age of eight. Her latest sentence was for mugging an old age pensioner and at the time of Melissa's arrival she was halfway through a two year stretch. But Sharon could understand that it was hard for the University educated Melissa to accept orders from warders who barely had one GCSE between them. And although her own bottom had now been strapped so many times that she took that punishment completely in her stride she could realise that it was still a traumatic experience for Melissa. She was also very different from her cellmate in appearance being a well-built and athletic five foot nine, strikingly beautiful with long blonde hair.

That night, in an effort to comfort her, Sharon crept into her cellmate's bunk. She was surprised at how eagerly the younger girl responded to her advances. Soon the girls were locked in a passionate embrace, caressing each other all over, their tongues in each other's mouths. Melissa had never before felt a lesbian impulse, but she was so lonely and so desperately needed someone that she felt herself responding to Sharon as she never had to a man.

Lesbian relationships were strictly forbidden at Norton Parva, and were not punished with a mere strapping. The two girls could not continue undiscovered for ever. Within two weeks they were called before Mrs Chambers, the Governor. She decided to make an example of them. Melissa was sentenced to eighteen strokes of the cane and Sharon, who had been caned several times before, to the same number of strokes of the birch. Both punishments were to take place in public.

Public canings were fairly unusual, perhaps about a dozen a year, and birchings much rarer still, but a routine had been developed. For security reasons it was considered undesirable to collect all the girls in one hall to witness a public caning. Therefore the inmates were split into groups divided between the various training rooms used for courses. The girl to be punished than had to go from room to room, receiving part of her punishment in each. As a public caning of more than twelve strokes was considered a severe punishment it was required that a police officer be present.

The following day at four o'clock in the afternoon Melissa was led into one of the four training rooms by a burly police sergeant holding tightly onto her right ear through her thick red hair.

Already near to tears, the pretty twenty year old was bent over the large desk at the front of the room normally used by the lecturers. Sergeant Marlowe lifted Melissa's navy blue school skirt and pinned it up in position, revealing her slightly plumpish behind, quivering inside tightly fitting blue panties.

There was an audience to this scene. Sitting behind their desks were their usual occupants, about forty young female offenders brought to see what happened to naughty girls who flout the institution's rules. But more shamingly, from Melissa's point of view, prison officers, male as well as female, were also there, standing up by the sides of the inmates' desks, drinking in the sight.

After a brief pause, enabling everyone to appreciate the poignancy of the situation, the sergeant leaned down again and roughly pulled those blue panties down. They slid down Melissa's legs and ended up over her ankles. Now everyone saw exposed the ample curvaceous bottom of the stuck up middle-class girl; a bottom never spanked before her arrival and which had been pampered throughout its life. All that was going to change now and Sergeant Marlowe stepped to one side and picked up a long cane from the front desk.

The cane, of the same type as that used on the 'hard cases' at a boys' Reform School, was over three feet long and rather more than a quarter of an inch in diameter. The sergeant picked it up and whipped it through the air twice. The whistle as the supple cane lashed through the unresisting air sounded clearly throughout the crowded room. Several of the inmates grimaced involuntarily and wriggled uncomfortably on the hard seats, remembering the pain that that vicious rod had caused to their own behinds.

But the sergeant was not to be Melissa's chastiser. Suddenly eyes turned away as Sharon Holden was led through the training room door escorted by two prison warders. Still looking exceptionally attractive, even in her distress, the statuesque beauty, wearing her schoolgirl uniform, which looked absurdly like fancy dress on her, was led to Sergeant Marlowe who handed her the cane, with a slight sarcastic smile and bow! The Governor had decided on this variation on the normal procedures in view of the nature of the offence.

Sharon bit her lips and actually managed to look rather schoolgirlish, but both she and Melissa knew what must happen now. She took up position behind and slightly to the left of her cellmate's exposed posterior.

"Are you ready, Lascelles?" asked the sergeant.

There was a half-audible grunt, but no intelligible answer.

"I asked are you ready?" repeated the sergeant. This time he emphasised his answer with a sharp slap to Melissa's left cheek. A red hand print quickly formed on Melissa's sensitive, delicate flesh.

"Yes! OK. I'm ready!" Melissa responded, her voice sounding strange.

The sergeant was not satisfied. "Yes, what? I'm ready, what?" he demanded and the right side of Melissa's rear received a stinging slap in its turn. Melissa wriggled in discomfort and her legs parted, giving the gaping males in the audience their first glimpse of her pubic hair and her most secret and intimate places.

"Yes, sir! I'm ready, sir!" came the sullen answer. Contended, the sergeant stepped back. "Very well, Holden, you may begin!" he says.

Grim faced, Sharon lifted the cane. She didn't want to hurt her new friend but she had been told that if it was decided after the punishment that she did not cane Melissa just as hard as she was able to then Melissa would receive additional strokes to make up, and her own punishment would be likewise extended. So not only would she be doing Melissa no favours by restricting the force of her efforts, but her own bottom would suffer for it.

Bearing this in mind Sharon hefted the cane. Melissa pressed her legs back together again and clenched her bottom tight. Her chastiser was a tall, athletic and perfectly fit young woman and in her hands the cane hissed through the air at tremendous speed. Only to be instantaneously arrested in its descent as it made contact with Melissa's fleshy cheeks with a tremendous THWACKK!

Bravely Melissa did not cry out, but her first ever stroke of the cane has clearly been felt. Those near the front of the room heard her sharp gasp as the pain bit home and saw the trembling in her bottom increase. An ugly red weal sprang up across the plump cheeks.

Sharon did not give the audience much time to note these effects. Almost immediately she raised the cane again and lashed it down for the second time. An instant before it made contact Melissa's buttocks contracted at the awful hissing sound. The cane slashed into the tender flesh, wrapping itself lissomely around her haunches. Sharon had no training in the art of using a cane, but she was doing very well! A second vivid line appeared about an inch below the first and parallel to it. Melissa grunted loudly but managed to remain in position.

Sharon did not direct the third stroke so well. It, too, bit deeply into the younger girl's plump, yielding flesh, but it landed diagonally, crossing the smarting marks left by its two predecessors. This time Melissa did yelp in pain and kick her legs frantically. But she straight away resumed her position. Melissa was a weak and unlikable character in many ways but now she was showing courage.

Three more strokes followed, each of equal venom, and the whole area of Melissa's bottom was swollen and sore, before the sergeant turned to Sharon and said, "Right. That's six, Holden! You can stop now."

Sharon stepped back. She was heartbroken at the pain she had had to cause her friend and at the realisation that her own behind was soon to suffer as much, or more.

"Stand up, Lascelles!"

Painfully the caned girl straightened. She was very close to tears and had to force herself to keep her hands by her side rather than to massage her blazing bottom. She was only too aware that her punishment had just begun.

"Lift up your panties!"

Melissa bent down, supporting herself on the desk with one hand and gasping as she did so. She grasped the blue school panties and tried to manipulate them upwards. They had been tight before, but now it was sheer agony trying to stretch them over her swollen flesh. The audience heard Melissa's squeaks and squeals as she cautiously wriggled her way into the tight panties. Then the prison officers present all applauded. They knew that that was the end of the entertainment so far as they were concerned.

But it was not the end for Melissa. Far from it. Once again Sergeant Marlowe grasped Melissa by her ear and marched her briskly out of the room. Her skirt was still pinned up and everyone could see the marks left by the cane where they were not covered by her panties. And following them came Sharon, still carrying the cane and escorted by the two warders.

Walking was very painful to the caned Melissa and she was just on the point of giving way and clasping her throbbing buttocks with her hands when she was roughly propelled into the second of the four training rooms.

Once again it was filled with a keenly interested audience. Melissa reluctantly lowered herself across the lecturer's desk and the sergeant again drew down her panties. He did not take any care about Melissa's weals and she squealed an ineffective protest. If his hand did take the opportunity for a quick feel of the offending girl's bottom few of the watching staff would blame him. But there was a collective gasp as Melissa's bottom was fully revealed with its pattern of weals and the first signs of the severe bruising manifesting themselves.

Sharon applied the cane with the same degree of force but Melissa did not take this second instalment of her punishment so bravely as she had the first. She rode the first two quite well, despite yelling at each, but by now no stroke was hitting unwealed flesh. At the third she gave vent to a veritable shriek of agony and writhed in pain, wildly kicking back her legs before frantically rubbing her thighs together. The whole room heard her burst into tears and begin to sob loudly.

Sharon stepped back, horrified at the effect of that last stroke, and made no further effort to continue the punishment. "Come on, Holden," encouraged one of the warders, "think about your own arse!"

Unwillingly Sharon continued to savagely scourge her friend's derriŠre, an anguished cry of pain now following each stroke of the cane.

This time when she was told to stand up after the sixth stroke Melissa immediately cupped the cheeks of her hindquarters in the palms of her hands. Groaning with pain she slowly began to massage the swollen flesh. She extended her fingers to cover the whole area and, with her thumbs extended towards her hips, she very gently pressed her hands to her backside, using the tips of her fingers to separate, at the base, her vividly marked buttocks.

The normally vain and snobbish girl continued to massage her violently stinging rear, oblivious to the fact that her actions were exposing to the lecherous stares of the male part of her audience the whole of the crevice between her buttocks. But this only lasts until the sergeant once more ordered her to pull up those tight panties.

This time Melissa just yanked them up. It hurt so much already that a bit more doesn't seem to matter. Then it was on to the third training room.

By now Sharon was acting like a caning automaton. Trying not to think of the effect of each stroke on Melissa she merely lifted the cane, aimed it and then lashed it down as hard as she could. It was after the second stroke of this section (the fourteenth overall) that Melissa's resistance disappeared.

She straightened and hopped up and down on the training room floor, her hands covering her bottom. It was an involuntary act. She knew there was no way that she would be let off the rest of her punishment, but she just couldn't stay in place any more as the already unbearable pain in her rear continued to get worse and worse.

Angrily the sergeant grabbed her hands and forced her back down over the desk. He called one of the male warders to hold her down and looked towards Mrs Chambers for directions. "Two penalty strokes, officer," she ordered.

Sergeant Marlowe removed his uniform jacket and rolled his right shirt sleeve up to his elbow. Then he took the cane from Sharon and told her to stand back. He spat on his hands and laid on the two hardest strokes Melissa had received that day, aiming them expertly to land one on top of the other just above the girl's thighs. The effect on Melissa was devastating. Her screams were heartbreaking and the warder needed all his strength to hold her in place. The sergeant handed the cane back to Sharon with another bow.

Tough as she was Sharon was now crying quietly in sympathy with her lover. Regardless she had to try to close her ears to the wild despairing howls of pain as she delivered the last four strokes. Sharon's arm was aching now and these strokes were less hard than the earlier ones. Nevertheless they still whipped down hard and bit deeply into Melissa's sensitive bottom.

Finally this instalment too was over. When released Melissa did not stand up but remained draped over the desk sobbing bitterly until jerked up by the sergeant, who then ordered her to pull up her panties again.

Once more the sobbing girl, blue school skirt still pinned up, scarcely able to walk, was manhandled down the corridors and into the final training room, the largest of the four. As she was dragged to the large desk she had to pass a large wooden structure fixed to the floor. In her wretched state Melissa did not realise what it was. But Sharon knew only too well. It was the whipping bench over which she would have to bend to receive her own punishment. She had spent much of the morning screwing it firmly into place with two smiling warders watching her.

Melissa had now received her full allocation of eighteen strokes, plus two extra. Nevertheless she was made to bend over the desk as in the other rooms. At a sign from the Governor one of the warders went round to hold her firmly in place. The sergeant pulled down her panties over her swollen and inflamed bottom for the final time. Then he, Mrs Chambers, the Deputy Governor and the Matron gathered round to decide whether Sharon had been too lenient with her punishment.

The discussions took some time and involved much feeling and slapping of Melissa's bottom to establish its condition. Even in her anguish Melissa was aware of the acute humiliation. She and Sharon could both hear the arguments as the officials decided whether their bottoms should receive further strokes. Sergeant Marlowe felt that Sharon had been far too gentle and that some of her strokes had been merely taps. He thought that a further six strokes should be ordered.

Mrs Chambers felt that Sharon, although tiring towards the end as was only natural, had done her best and that Melissa had received a very sound caning. In her opinion no further strokes were necessary. The Deputy Governor agreed with the Governor but believed that another two strokes should be administered to compensate for the lack of power in Sharon's last few strokes. The Matron did not venture an opinion as to Sharon's performance but said that, in her opinion, Melissa's bottom could take another four strokes.

Finally it was decided to accept the Deputy Governor's proposal. The sergeant removed his jacket and rolled up his shirt sleeve once more. Sharon handed the cane to him, glumly. She had, unwillingly, done her best and despite that she now had two strokes of the cane to look forward to in addition to her own birching.

The final two strokes of Melissa's punishment were laid on from opposite sides and diagonally so as to cover her entire bottom and to cross all the earlier strokes. It was fortunate that Melissa was firmly held but she howled wildly and kicked out furiously.

Dawn Chatfield, one of the girls in the front row of the audience, was horrified at the state of Melissa's bottom and at the violence of Sergeant Marlowe's cane strokes. This was Dawn's first day at Norton Parva and, at just sixteen, she was one of the youngest girls there. Dawn had been convicted of pushing cannabis at the school she attended as a fifth former. Like Melissa she had expected a fine or a suspended sentence, but the magistrate had decided on a 'short, sharp shock' and she had been given three months at Norton Parva. When the final stroke contacted the howling girl's juddering buttocks it was too much for Dawn and she fainted.

Dawn was carried back to her cell and placed on her bunk. A warder stood by her, strap in hand. When Dawn revived she was bent over and given six hard lashes to remind her not to be so much trouble in future.

After the brief diversion caused by Dawn the sergeant jerked Melissa upright and quickly and efficiently handcuffed her hands in front of her before she could try to put them to her bottom. Then he dragged the weeping girl to a corner of the room and chained the handcuffs to a metal ring fixed into the wall. The ring was about six feet up and Melissa had to stretch on tiptoe. He slipped her panties off over her feet. Everybody in the room had a good sight of the girl's caned bottom with its awful marks. Melissa continued to squeal and gasp and hop about so far as she could, wriggling her body like a corkscrew, still crying like a baby.

Sergeant Marlowe turned to Sharon. "Over the desk, Holden!" he said. "It's your turn now!"

Sharon turned and lowered herself over the desk, grasping its other side. She was much taller than Melissa and, as he turned her skirt up and pinned it into place, the sergeant warned her to keep her legs straight. He rolled her panties all the way down her long legs, enjoying the feel of the warm, yielding flesh and the smell of Sharon's fear. He made her step out of the panties - she would not be needing them again for quite a while.

Sergeant Marlowe laid on Sharon's two strokes with as much force as he had Melissa's. Both landed right across the centre of Sharon's large bottom. Despite her many previous canings the tall girl could not withhold a gasp of pain as the second stroke landed directly on top of the first. The sergeant grabbed hold of Sharon by her short blonde hair and jerked her upright.

Mrs Chambers signalled to a warder by the door who went out and returned bearing a bucket of water from which the handles of three large birch rods protruded. Sharon watched tight-lipped, oblivious to her half naked state, but resisting the temptation to press her hands to her stinging bottom, as the sergeant slowly drew out the rods one at a time, shook them to remove the excess water and then carefully wrapped them in damp cloths before placing them on the top of the front desk.

Like most of the girls there Sharon had never seen a birch before. She knew that a few girls had been punished in this way while she'd been at Norton Parva, but these punishments had been carried out in private. Her first cellmate, Mandy Lobell, had received six strokes of the birch for striking a warder before Sharon had arrived at the unit. Mandy, a softly pretty eighteen year old, never talked about the punishment but Sharon remembered how her bottom had still been marked, over six months after her birching, with a delicate tracery of tiny white scars. Mandy's birching had certainly been effective and when Sharon knew her she was quiet and subdued and careful about keeping to the rules, just biding time until her release. But, according to the other girls, she had been as vivacious as anyone else - before her flogging.

The birch rods looked most formidable. Each one was made up of about twelve supple birch twigs about three feet long. One end was bound to form a handle of about a foot in length, while at the other end the twigs spread out to be about five inches in diameter.

The sergeant turned his attention to Holden, "Over the bench, Holden!" he ordered.

The whipping bench was an upright wooden structure, secured to the floor and with a padded leather top which sloped at an angle so that the offender to be birched could be bent over the apex and her arms and legs secured by straps attached to the four uprights. Her face pale but determined Sharon leaned forward across the bench allowing her arms and legs to be pinioned. Her large, but beautifully proportioned, buttocks were fully exposed. Sharon had received two biting strokes of the cane but only one weal could be seen pulsating across the centre of her lovely bottom, its dark vivid colour contrasting with the rest of the smooth white flesh. Both strokes had landed in so much the same place that the weals had completely coalesced into one.

The Governor gave a signal and Sergeant Marlowe took up the first birch, shaking it a few times to get rid of any last few drops of water. Then he moved over to the side of the bench to take aim. As Sharon felt the sharp presence of a dozen prickly twigs being drawn across her naked flesh she cringed involuntarily.

The sergeant raised the birch high into the air. He had delivered dozens of birchings to male backsides but Sharon's was only the second female bottom he had had to punish in this way. He felt that it was his duty, if ordered to do so, to birch a woman in the same way and with the same degree of intensity as he would a man. This, however, did not prevent him from finding it a powerfully erotic experience. With a practised swing he administered the first cut.

As the cruel twigs spread out over Sharon's firm buttocks a hiss of pain escaped the girl's lips and a red flush of tiny weals appeared standing out vividly against the white flesh. Her whole body convulsed in a spasm of pain as twigs tore in to the raised welt bringing back the original sting tenfold and producing small globules of blood. As she tried to ready herself for the next stroke Sharon was already aware that the birch was a very much more painful instrument than even the cane.

Sergeant Marlowe was an expert at his task. He knew that each stroke of the birch spread over a considerable area of the buttocks and was careful to ensure that each stroke fell in exactly the right area between waist and the tops of the thighs. He reckoned that he could cover the entire area in three strokes. He measured each stroke carefully, allowing about ten seconds between each stroke.

By the time the first six strokes had been administered Sharon was bucking in the straps which held her and sweating profusely, her face distraught with the pain. Her bottom was well wealed from hips to thighs so that it would have looked to someone entering the room that she was wearing red panties.

It was now time for Sergeant Marlowe to hand over the responsibility for the remainder of the punishment. He was rather reluctant to do so, but on the other hand he reckoned that six with the birch laid on by him was a severe punishment for anyone. He thought that he had already given young Miss Holden enough to ensure that she wouldn't be able to sit down in any comfort for at least a week. He threw the birch rod casually into a bin, retrieved his jacket and went to stand over near the door.

Peter Campbell, one of the male warders, came forward and picked up the second birch. The Scotsman was not such an expert as the sergeant but made up for it by sheer brute force. He stood on the other side from that on which Sergeant Marlowe had stood to ensure that both Sharon's bottom cheeks would feel the full power of the flogging. The birch lashed down with a frightful swish across poor Sharon's agonisingly sore behind and the poor girl screamed in absolute agony.

Fragments of the birch embedded themselves deep in her flesh and other bits flew off, together with droplets of blood, and were felt by the watching girls at the front of the audience. Sharon screamed and struggled at each successive cut but was securely held in position by the straps at her arms and legs.

After his sixth stroke, the twelfth overall, Mr Campbell threw away the birch and the Governor herself walked forward. She had decided to apply the last six strokes of Sharon's punishment herself. Before picking up the birch she made a short speech warning the other inmates to take advantage of Melissa's and Sharon's experiences and to keep to the reformatory rules unless they wanted to experience the cane and birch for themselves. She had to raise her voice so as to be heard over Sharon's loud sobs as the heaved unavailingly in her bonds. Melissa had stopped crying by now, but she continued to whimper in pain and dance from foot to foot.

Mrs Chambers walked round the bench next to Sharon and roughly pulled her head up by her hair so that she looked her in the face. "Six strokes to come, Holden! Not very pleasant is it?" Then she turned in disgust and went over to pick up the last of the three birches.

Mrs Chambers was experienced in the use of the birch on the bottoms of wayward young women. She carried out the internal punishments and it had been she who had birched Mandy Lobell, Sharon's ex-cellmate so effectively.

Sharon drew several quick deep breaths as she tried hopelessly to compose herself for the half dozen remaining strokes. Mrs Chambers measured the distance and lightly touched the birch to Sharon's bottom. She winced at even this light touch on her tender skin and as the birch swished down yet again a loud cry was forced from her lips and her whole body jerked desperately in its restraints in an effort to avoid the curling twist.

The strokes followed evenly, the swish of the birch and the thwack as it landed on the buttocks punctuated by the piercing cries of the hapless recipient. At last it was over. Mrs Chambers threw down the birch, leaving Sharon still struggling in her leather bonds and sobbing as if she would never stop. The marks of the birch on her bottom showed clearly and painfully just how severe had been her ordeal.

The governor made all of the inmates present file past both girls so as to get a close look at both pairs of battered buttocks. If any of them wanted to touch the girls' flesh they were not prevented. When all the other girls had left Mrs Chambers called Sergeant Marlowe back over. He untied the leather thongs and quickly handcuffed Sharon as he had Melissa. He pulled Sharon upright, but her legs would not support her weight. Two officers half-dragged and half-carried her to an isolation cell. Melissa was also taken to an isolation cell at the opposite side of the unit. The cells had a bucket for use as a toilet and one wooden chair each, but no bed. Both girls were left there overnight with no food and no change of clothing to meditate on their behaviour and its effects.

Neither girl had any sleep that night. Next morning a warder visited them and gave them each a new set of the unit uniform. They had to dress and shower and were then taken into breakfast with the other girls. They were not allowed to stand up for the meal and both girls had to grit their teeth and ignore the pain of sitting on their well-punished bottoms.

By coincidence Mr and Mrs Scott-Lascelles visited Melissa that day and were taken aback at the sight of their pampered little daughter struggling to fight back her tears and unable to sit down properly. She had to tell her parents that she'd been caned but was too embarrassed to tell them the reason. "I did deserve it," she tearfully confessed, "but my bottom hurts so terribly!"

As they drove away Ralph Scott-Lascelles said to his wife, "I think a sore bottom is just what that young madam needs. If you'd let me spank her when she was at home, perhaps she wouldn't be in that place!"

Sharon kept well out of Melissa's way after her painful experience and her behaviour for the rest of her term at Norton Parva was much improved. Nevertheless she was sent to the Governor for punishment on two further occasions and was very relieved that she only got six and nine strokes of the cane applied over her school type panties.

Melissa made more friends among the other girls after her ordeal. She kept out of serious trouble, just getting the normal, unavoidable, strappings. Her one caning came when Lynda Attwood, her new cellmate, stole some biscuits from the staff room and shared them with her. Both girls were sent to Mrs Chambers. Lynda, who at thirty five was one of the oldest inmates, was given twelve strokes on her bare bottom. Her punishment was in public with three strokes being administered in each of the four training rooms. The less guilty Melissa was let off with six over her panties in the privacy of the Governor's office.

But, just two days before her release, Melissa stupidly got involved in a scheme to smuggle alcohol into the unit. The culprits were discovered and sent to the Governor. The other girls involved were given extensions to their sentences ranging from four weeks to six months. In view of the imminence of Melissa's release Mrs Chambers gave her the option of a further two months at Norton Parva or six strokes of the birch.

It was an awful choice and Melissa took a while to make up her mind, but she just had to get back to the outside as soon as possible. Mrs Chambers, rather spitefully, delayed the infliction of the punishment until the morning of Melissa's release.

When Melissa was taken from the Governor's office after her birching, weeping with the pain and humiliation, her bottom ablaze with an unprecedented stinging, she found her own clothes, which she had last worn a year before in a vain effort to influence the jury and judge, laid out on her bunk. It took her a long time to manoeuvre her lacy white panties, so different from those horrid school-type panties over her swollen buttocks. She decided not to try to put on her pantyhose. As she dressed, pausing from time to time as the smarting in her rear became too insistent, she ruefully reflected on how much she had looked forward to this day, and how painful the reality was. She waited for her parents in the secretary's office, holding her painful bottom through the back of her tight green skirt, like a naughty schoolgirl. How that birch had hurt!

And when Mr and Mrs Scott-Lascelles picked up their erring daughter she winced and squealed in pain as she settled herself on the yielding leather seat of her father's Jaguar and said goodbye to Norton Parva for ever.