A private school headmaster forced a prospective student to undress and kneel while he spanked the 15-year-old girl with a paddle to demonstrate the school's corporal punishment methods, police say.
Michael William Wetton was jailed without bond on suspicion of child abuse, kidnapping and aggravated assault. He already faces trial next month for allegedly bruising a 9-year-old student during a paddling.Police said a woman brought her 15-year-old daughter to the Connacht Academy Christian School on Feb. 24 because she was considering enrolling her there.
According to the account they gave police, Wetton took the girl into a room alone, had her strip to her underwear and paddled her once, explaining he wanted her to understand corporal punishment before she enrolled.
She cried and tried to get away, and Wetton forced her to strip naked and hit her twice more, police reports indicated. He also ordered her to bow down and recite the Lord's Prayer, police said.
The girl's mother heard her daughter crying and went to her, witnessing part of the beating but was too frightened to stop it, said Detective Brent Vermeer. She contacted police after getting photos developed of her daughter's bruises.
Wetton, 41, and his wife are the only teachers at the school.