The vulnerable children who go from care home to court

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/nov/06/vulnerable-children-care-home-to-court

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During a month at a youth court, the Guardian saw looked-after children charged for spitting at a social worker and damaging a TV

In England and Wales, fewer than one in 100 under-18s are in care, yet in just one month in Greater Manchester youth court, almost one in five defendants were looked-after children (22 out of 130).

Though just a snapshot of one court in one month, it raises questions about the reliability of official statistics – dismissed by one expert as “not worth the paper they are written on” – which said only 4% of looked-after children last year were convicted or cautioned for an offence.

One 16-year-old boy wept in the dock as he admitted possession of a knife and stealing the charity box from a Salford branch of McDonald’s. His social worker did not turn up, leaving him alone as his solicitor explained he had stolen the money to give to his family. He was released on bail, despite having nowhere to go that evening.

Another boy, now 18, had been taken into care in Salford a few years earlier after getting involved in “serious drug dealing with organised crime gangs”. His mum had kicked him out after he was given an Osman warning, which police issue to people to whose lives they believe there is a real and immediate threat. Social services had threatened to take away her five other children if she let her son stay in the house.

He had recently presented as homeless at Salford council, having been stabbed 21 times on the street, and was in court charged with breaching his rehabilitation order. The judge sentenced him to a new order including 100 hours of community work, remarking after the boy left court that he had never come across a youth with an Osman warning before. “Oh, we get them quite a bit in Salford,” said one of the Salford youth offending team in court. Greater Manchester police later confirmed they had issued 20 under-18s with Osman warnings since July 2017.

Four children were accused of damaging their care homes or assaulting care staff, including a 17-year-old boy charged with common assault after spitting at his social worker. A 13-year-old girl was prosecuted for damaging floorboards, a TV, radiator and wardrobe belonging to Salford council, as well as assaulting two members of staff. And a 14-year-old boy was charged with causing £300 of damage to a car belonging to his Stockport care home by kicking it.

One 13-year-old boy, who had moved up from the south coast “to get away from bad influences”, was charged with arson after setting fire to his duvet at 1.30am. It started innocently enough, his care worker said: “They were playing with toothpaste and then soap and it escalated.”

No one was hurt and the fire did not spread, but staff still called police. Contacted by the Guardian, the care home insisted the decision to prosecute the boy had been made entirely by the police and Crown Prosecution Service. “By involving the police, it doesn’t mean there’s an intention to bring proceedings or to criminalise,” said a spokesman. “Care homes in general have a high threshold for involving the police, but need to do so when there is serious threat of harm to others.”

In court, a district judge told the boy he was there because “you could have killed someone”. He asked what the boy’s ambitions were. “None really,” said the boy impassively, his shoelaces undone. He was sentenced to a 12-month rehabilitation order, which included “reparations activity” for 10 days, including work with the Greater Manchester fire service.