This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22294098
The article has changed 5 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Teenager wins ruling on detention of 17-year-olds | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A teenager has successfully challenged the policy of treating 17-year-olds in police custody as adults, not children. | |
| The High Court ruled the policy was "incompatible" with human rights law. Under-17s are given greater protection. | |
| The case was brought by Hughes Cousins-Chang, who had been kept in custody for 12 hours and strip-searched before being released on police bail. | |
| The ruling follows the deaths of two 17-year-olds who killed themselves after getting into trouble with police. | |
| According to the Home Office, every year 75,000 17-year-olds are taken into police custody. | |
| Robbery arrest | |
| Those aged 16 and under are entitled to contact their parents or seek advice and assistance from an independent "appropriate adult". | |
| In his ruling on Thursday, Lord Justice Moses, sitting with Mr Justice Kenneth Parker, said: | |
| "I conclude that it is inconsistent with the rights of the claimant and his mother, enshrined in Article 8 (of the European Convention on Human Rights) for the secretary of state to treat 17-year-olds as adults when in detention." | |
| To do so "disregards the definition" of a child in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the "preponderance of legislation affecting children and justice", the judge said. | |
| Mr Hughes-Chang - who had never been any trouble with the police before - brought the challenge with the help of his uncle Christopher Chang. | |
| Now 18 years old, the court lifted an anonymity order on Mr Hughes-Chang following the ruling. | |
| He was arrested four weeks after his 17th birthday, on 19 April 2012 on suspicion of the robbery of a mobile phone on a bus. | |
| His mother, Carrlean Chang, was not aware of his arrest for more than four hours, after the police had denied his request for her to be contacted. | |
| When she did arrive at Battersea Police Station, she was not allowed to speak to her son. | |
| The teenager, from Tulse Hill in south London, was finally released almost 12 hours later and was informed by letter a month after his arrest that his bail would be cancelled. He was not charged. |