A children’s home teacher and carer bit the back of two young girls’ hands as a punishment, late 1960s papers on abuse in children’s homes and special schools reveal.

An inquiry into Christie Home in Haddington, East Lothian, shows that a Miss Campbell kept a logbook. “Bitten by me for biting Inge Belmonte (3),” it states.

A seven-year-old girl who swore had to drink a mug of carbolic lather with a teaspoon of salt in it. Inspectors were told the practice had been in use since 1940.

Glasgow’s children’s department was in trouble in 1967 after claims of excessive punishment at Gryffe Children’s Home, which it ran in Bridge of Weir. City guidelines stated:

* Children under 10 could only be given a “slap with basic hand on buttock”.

* Girls over 10 - “no corporal punishment permitted”.

* Boys over 10 - “not more than four strokes with strap over seat of trousers or two on each hand”.

* “The strap is supplied by the Corporation. Strapping is not permitted over pyjamas or football shorts.”