11-Year-Old London Rioter Sentenced to 18-Month Rehab
- Posted on August 31, 2011 at 4:19pm by
Christopher Santarelli
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Rambunctious middle-schoolers take note, your behavior in England will be lawfully adressed. The Guardian reports that an 11-year-boy has been sentenced to an 18-month youth rehabilitation order for stealing a “bin” during London’s recent riots:
“The boy from Romford in north-east London is the youngest rioter in the capital to be prosecuted, according to Scotland Yard.
He committed the offense five days after being given a referral order for arson, criminal damage and carrying a pointed instrument in an unrelated incident.
The boy took the bin, worth £50, from Debenhams in Romford on 8 August.
Rioters had smashed the windows of the store, causing £6,000 of damage, when the boy was seen by a police officer reaching in to take a bin from a display.”
The arson and “pointed object” charge comes from a July 18 incident when the boy cut open the seat of a public bus with a knife, tried to set the seat’s foam innards on fire, and threw a stone through the bus’s glass exit door. While being thrown off the bus the boy kicked the hole that he made in the exit door, thus shattering the entire glass.
While passing the sentence the district judge said “You seem to think that nobody can stop the way you behave.”
Children‘s groups have protested the judge’s decision. CEO of the UK‘s leading children’s charity Barnardo told the Guardian:
“It is both counterproductive and costly to hand out disproportionately punitive sentences for minor offences such as petty theft, particularly to younger children of 10 or 11.
The evidence shows that after a year, half of boys and girls at this age who are sentenced in court will have reoffended and their experience within the criminal justice system increases the likelihood that they will go on to commit further crimes.
We are calling on the government to reconsider treatment of the youngest children in trouble within the criminal justice system.
“We would urge them to spend money more wisely on more effective ways to stop youth crime, such as whole family approaches like family intervention projects.”
BBC News reports that the youth rehabilitation order is a generic community sentence for young offenders, which refers the boy to a Youth Offender Panel, where the offender is expected to agree to a “contract” with the panel made up of at least two trained volunteers from the community. During the 18-month youth rehabilitation order his local authority would dictate where he lives for the next six months.
According to the BBC, the Metropolitan Police have made 2,124 arrests following the London riots, with 1,221 people charged. Of those people charged, 263 were juveniles.
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Ready2Rumble
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 9:33pmSounds like Junior is on the fast-track to becoming a Dead End Kid who will spend most of his life in prison, if he doesn’t end up dead first. I will bet anyone a Tim Horton’s donut (with extra sprinkles) and cup of joe, that this kid comes from a single parent, welfare household.
Report Post »grudgywoof
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 7:26amChildren’s Groups? Wow, I guess these must be “progressive” children’s groups because as we all know it‘s all about growing up a good little anarchist isn’t it. Rot the family and turn the children into little monsters, sounds like Satan is at work here once again. My high school principle had a paddle with holes drilled in it hung prominently on his wall and you could hear the “WHACK” of it as it found its mark. We loved the guy and our school was peaceful. Look what they have done to us. Progressivism is a mental disorder and purely evil.
Report Post »Elena2010
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 12:39amSpanking worked on me! Didn’t like it much, but it did not destroy my inner person. “Spare the rod, spoil the child” and oh, do we have a bunch of spoiled brats running loose these days!
Spank the kid hard enough on his hind-end and watch his head pop out the other side.
Report Post »Bluefish49
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 7:22amPersonally…when I was eleven a few months in the big house would have probably done me some good….
Report Post »Ready2Rumble
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 9:34pmDitto. Junior has no problem that a father with a switch couldn’t fix in about five minutes.
Report Post »Ready2Rumble
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 9:36pmJunior has no problem that a father with a switch couldn’t fix in about five minutes.
Report Post »commonsensehurts
Posted on August 31, 2011 at 11:57pmHere’s how “to spend money more wisely on more effective ways to stop youth crime.” Sign Britain’s kiddos up for Singapore caning and you will have behavioral reformation, voila! Next problem?
Report Post »dontbotherme
Posted on August 31, 2011 at 11:40pmGood. Children of all ages need to learn that there are consequences for their actions. There is a difference between right & wrong.
Report Post »beans bullets and bandaids
Posted on August 31, 2011 at 10:09pm“The evidence shows that after a year, half of boys and girls at this age who are sentenced in court will have reoffended …”
Sounds like a 50% success rate to me.
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