Anthony Tyrer, then aged 15, was given three strokes of the birch in 1972 in the Isle of Man, in accordance with a local juvenile court's sentence for unlawful assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
[1] By a majority of six votes to one, the court held Tyrer's birching to constitute degrading treatment contrary to the Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
[2] Significant conclusions of the case included that "the Convention is a living instrument which, as the Commission rightly stressed, must be interpreted in the light of present-day conditions.
In the case now before it the Court cannot but be influenced by the developments and commonly accepted standards in the penal policy of the member States of the Council of Europe in this field".
[5] The judgment was considered 'landmark' by Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.