Children’s unfair treatment in adult courts

* The Guardian, Thursday 16 April 2009

Blake Morrison, in his thoughtful article on the Edlington case (Let the circus begin, 11 April), made the point that 10-year-old children in the UK, alone in the civilised world, are tried for serious offences by adult courts using adult criminal codes, suffering adult punishments.

Two recent cases disclose how unfairly these children are likely to be treated at trial. Take the case that caused the creation of our group. In October 2007 five boys appeared in the central criminal court and were sentenced to two years’ custody, having been convicted of manslaughter after a full adult trial. They were aged between 10 and 12 at the time of the incident concerned and the trial was given the full circus treatment. What went virtually unreported was that two months later the convictions were quashed by the appeal court. Neither the Crown Prosecution Service or trial judge had noticed that the evidence supporting such a serious charge was insufficient.

Again virtually unreported, in June last year a 14-year-old girl sentenced to 18 months’ detention for falsely accusing her brother and his friend of indecently assaulting her when she was nine had her sentence quashed by the appeal court. But the legacy of the Bulger case is the effect it has had in frustrating any attempt at law reform in this area. The fear is that as a result of Edlington the circus will go on for another generation.
Stephen Jakobi
Convener, Children Aren’t Criminals