Broken Britain

There is nothing more distressing to society when their very young turn out to be torturers. This past week in the South Yorkshire village of Edlington, ripples of horror and shock ripped through the community as the toxic lives of two young boys were exposed in court.

Two brothers who tortured two boys in a sadistic attack have been sentenced to an indefinite period of detention.

Sheffield Crown Court heard how the pair, then aged 10 and 11, threatened to kill their nine and 11-year-old victims.

The brothers, who admitted causing grievous bodily harm, were told they would serve a minimum five years.

During their 90-minute ordeal in April 2009 the victims were stamped on, forced to strip and hit with bricks.

Sentencing the brothers, the judge Mr Justice Keith described their behaviour as "appalling and terrible".

The severity of the attack stunned the police who dealt with the case.

Sgt Vernon, a 41-year-old policeman of 22-years, was the first officer from the search party to come across the older of two victims, he spotted the boy lying face-down on the river-bank, wearing just a T-shirt.

“He was covered in blood,” Sgt Vernon recalled. “You couldn’t see his face and he was drifting in and out of consciousness. I tried to keep him conscious, speaking to him, pinching his ear to keep him awake, basically.

“It hit home and I was in tears. I don’t mind admitting that. I’ve got children of my own and you don’t expect to come across a situation like that”

It started out as an innocent Saturday with two young boys aged 11 and nine, enjoying morning on their BMX bikes were lured to dense woodland and subjected to an hour and a half of torture and sexual abuse, which nearly ended in their death.

The suggestion that the attacks were meted out by two small children, aged just 10 and 11, shocked the nation. But to those who knew the boys and their family, it was depressingly unsurprising.

The two boys guilty of the crime had a long history with the social services in South Yorkshire.

The elder of the boys had admitted he had watched his father’s pornographic DVDs and horror films such as Child’s Play and Saw. By the age of nine he also had a 10-cigarette-a-day habit and was drinking alcohol. He also used to smoke cannabis grown on his father’s allotment and was allowed to use his father’s gun.

He was, his barrister Peter Kelson QC, explained: “Subjected to gross physical and emotional abuse and neglect.” He added: “His family experience was characterised by routine aggression, violence and chaos.”

The family was well known, not just to social services, but to the police too. Their older brother is currently in prison and, despite their tender ages, both boys have been in trouble with the law previously. They had both been the subject of anti-social behaviour contracts since January 2008, when aged 10 and nine.

The Guardian newspaper in the UK reported that: “Immediately after the trial, the acting head of children’s services in Doncaster admitted that the department he took over last year had been "totally broken".

Nick Jarman promised a thorough investigation into why no stronger action was taken against the boys despite a long record of violent attacks by both of them against other children and adults.

Giving an unqualified apology for the "admitted failings which led to this terrible incident", Jarman said action would be taken against staff deemed to have mishandled the affair. Only one member of staff had been disciplined so far, he said.

Outside court, Temporary Superintendent Ian Bint, of South Yorkshire police, was asked whether the brothers' parents should face a criminal investigation. He said: "It's something we will be looking at … in the light of what has come out in court."” (22^nd January 2010)

Politicians all over the UK on all sides of the various parties in this election year have been making suitable noises of disgust and promises of better social care, but when the horses have bolted- we really don’t need gates fixing.

The past ten years in the UK have seen a mammoth series of failings within the social care system, with small children literally screaming out for help and subsequently found dead at the hands of their indolent carers/parents. Social workers have been sacked, inquiries have been set up, failings have been reoccurring and still children are being under served by the very government that used the slogan ‘Things can only get better’ when in fact they got steadily worse.

The most horrifying echo of the trial of two young Yorkshire boys for me was when one of the two children who admitted the attack was quoted as saying “There was nothing to do”. A bored boy aged 10 years old turned to sexual deprivation for want of something to do.

The community that suffered at the hands of the long term anti social behaviour of the family of the two kids warned the authorities, they basically yelled for help, yet nothing was done to curb their violence.

The elder of the two boys was convicted of battery in October 2008 when he punched and kicked a 52-year-old teacher.

In January 2009 he was convicted again of battery. In this incident he had shouted at an eight-year-old boy “I will kill you, you fucking bastard. I’m going to bray you.” He tried to punch the boy, but his mother stepped in. she was then punched twice and had to flee to a shop to call the police.

The fact that they were consistently allowed to continue their reign of terror showed a real lack of social care in South Yorkshire and now there are the platitudes of promises and apologies from the government agencies that we are all too familiar with.

Too many social workers dealing with too heavy case loads is always the issue, alongside the firm belief that families shouldn’t be split up or kids removed from the home, in my opinion this results in decisions being taken without the real care of the child in question.

Aggressive social work intervention from the 70s was replaced with an all encompassing softer approach, and in many cases that is acceptable, but there still has to be an overhaul to meet the demands of the broken Britain in which we now live.

Parents who do not care properly for the children need to be taken to task.

It can be said that the two boys who committed this attack were failed by the system and their own parents, who allows children to be raised like vicious animals?

The social care system in Britain, that’s who.