YOB RULE

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A war veteran was hauled before a court for tackling a teenage yob, while police treated the tearaway to a dream meeting with his Premier League football heroes. After years of suffering at the hands of his young tormentors, John Cawley snapped and confronted 14-year-old Matthew O'Brien's gang with a knife. Ex-soldier John won the sympathy of a judge who said his plight was "intolerable" and that he appreciated his "sense of injustice that nothing is being done". John had endured five years of abuse during which youths broke his fence, damaged stone posts on his driveway, dangled from trees in his back garden, hit his brickwork with hammers and kicked a football at his walls and windows.

John, who had never been in trouble with police before, eventually grabbed a knife and was seen chasing a group of teens who had been kicking a football against his wall, saying, "If I get hold of you I'll kill you." It emerged O'Brien had been known by cops since he was 12, but had been allowed out of school early one Friday to attend a Blackburn Rovers training session as part of a scheme to keep youngsters out of trouble. The teenager has since been made the subject of an ASBO and was ordered to be named and shamed after officers admitted their leniency had "backfired". John, of Blackburn, Lancs, said, "I just lost my temper after becoming sick and tired with all the abuse I was getting. I've never been in trouble with the police before and have served my country."

He added, "I know I was wrong to have the knife and I will serve my punishment but I think the system is a farce when you think of the way these kids have been treated with kid gloves. To think that one of them was 'punished' with a Blackburn Rovers training session just beggars belief. It's just nonsense. I would like to give him a 'training' session in the woods, see how he fairs. These young yobbos deliberately try and get a reaction by antagonising us and then claiming innocence. They know the law can't touch them. As far as I'm concerned the law is a complete waste of time." Since 2005, John has reported 12 incidents of problems at his terraced house and said the group of teenage youths varied in size from five to 15 at a time.

At Preston Crown Court Judge Andrew Woolman ordered him to complete 150 hours unpaid work after he admitted possessing a blade in a public place. The judge told him, "I'd like to know what somebody is going to do about this situation. I have no doubt that for many years you were subjected to provocation of all types and forms from a large body of youths outside. I appreciate your sense of injustice that nothing is being done by others about making the situation in your street tolerable." O'Brien's history emerged earlier this month when he was given an ASBO for smashing a football ball into the face of a pensioner. Magistrates in Blackburn heard he had been given the chance to attend a Blackburn Rovers training session as police tried to change his behaviour.

But after a catalogue of anti-social behaviour, including hospitalising one of his friends by throwing a stone at his head, he was handed a two-year ASBO. The JPs made the order with five conditions banning him from acting in an anti-social manner or inciting others to do so, associating in public with six named individuals, and playing football on a public highway. He is under curfew from 8pm to 6am each day and is excluded from his old haunts. PC Tom Sanford said leniency from colleagues and housing association staff because of O'Brien's age had "backfired slightly". A Lancashire police spokesman said, "There have been twelve incidents reported by Mr Cawley to police since the start of 2005."

He added, "Seven of the incidents have been reported this year, five of which relate to anti-social behaviour, one for damage to Mr Cawley's house, and the final incident is the offence for which he has been convicted. A number of crime prevention measures have been offered to Mr Cawley which he has declined. Police carry out frequent patrols in the area and a special operation codenamed Trojan also runs regularly on the estate to target antisocial behaviour, although we have received few complaints from other residents. Several days ago we secured an ASBO against 14-year-old Matthew O'Brien who was behind much of the antisocial behaviour suffered by Mr Cawley and in fact these incidents have helped to secure the order." (Source: The Sun, Aug/10)

The Byker Wall estate in Newcastle upon Tyne estate is home to a mafia-style mob run by kids as young as nine who arm themselves with bricks and knives. Headed by an 11-year-old thug known as The Don, the gang, nicknamed The Untouchables, take over the streets, organising "hits" on scared residents.

One 10-year-old member of the gang boasted, "Nobody messes with us round here. We're in charge. The leader we call The Don, he's like the Godfather to us because he's got ASBOs for smashing up people's houses and he's only our age. He's the boss. We like smoking and drinking and fighting when we're drunk. I've had about 500 fights and we've all carried knives. We're all wagging school today but we don't give a shit. We're the kings of Byker."

Another 10-year-old in the estate mob added, "We're the Untouchables. Some of our gang can't be touched. We're too young. The police can't come near us. We know it and they know it. We don't give a fuck. There's loads of us and we stick together, nobody can touch us. We organise hits on houses and smash the windows and sometimes steal things."

Local councillor George Allison said, "We have put CCTV on every street and a caretaker service on call 24 hours a day to make the area safer." Inspector Alistair Freeburn, head of the community policing team at Byker, added, "It is well-policed by wardens and community support officers. Any complaints we get we respond to. We attempt to disperse the groups when we are made aware of their presence. There are youngsters who cause problems and we deal with it as and when it happens."

But as one resident said, "It's terrifying - the children are out of control and there's nothing we can do about it. Some of them are only 10 or 11 but they're out all hours of the night smashing houses and wreaking havoc. They are like the Mafia in control of their patch who go about breaking into houses and scaring locals. It sounds silly to be scared of kids but round here they run the show."(Source: Sunday People, May/06)

A drinking teenager who set fire to an 82-year-old woman's hair to impress his friend was today jailed for two years. Phillip Wooton left victim Elizabeth Collins traumatised after the incident on a Tyne and Wear Metro service between Gateshead and Sunderland. Mrs Collins only realised she had been set alight after a woman passenger leapt up to smother the flames. Wooton fled but gave himself up to police days later after CCTV images of the incident were published in the local media.

Robert Spragg, defending, told Newcastle Crown Court, "It was a drunken idiotic prank, done in alcohol to impress his friend who had accused him of being boring." Paul Currer, prosecuting, said Wooton moved to a seat behind Mrs Collins, "inexplicably" took out a cigarette lighter, and set fire to her hair. When the other passenger intervened and started patting the pensioner's head to dampen the flames, Mrs Collins thought she was being attacked. Mr Currer said, "Mrs Collins was completely traumatised. She said 'Why did you do it?’ "He replied ’Because I fucking felt like it’."

The defendant, of Rivermede, Fatfield, Washington, admitted causing actual bodily harm at a previous hearing and was sentenced to serve two years in a young offenders' institution. Recorder Sean Morris told him, "You have pleaded guilty to a very nasty and vicious assault on an 82-year-old lady travelling on the train. I accept you have put your house in order following this event so you ought to do."

He added, However, I am afraid I regard the nature of this offence so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified. The public would be rightly horrified if the courts did not lock people up who pick on vulnerable people on public transport. That lady was 82 years of age, she has every right as a senior citizen to expect respect, not to have some yobbish behaviour meted out and having her hair set on fire." (Source: The Sun)

A device which blasts out a high-pitched noise that only teenagers can hear is being used to stop hoodie-wearing youths hanging around outside shops. The machine, which is hidden within the lights of corner shops, uses ear-splitting ultrasonic soundwaves. It is being hailed as the answer to clear away underage drinkers and vandals from the doorways of late-opening stores. The device, called the Mosquito, has a range of 20 to 30 metres and emits a piercing sound only clearly audible to under-20s. The sound is said to be "extremely unpleasant", but not harmful.

Inventor Howard Stapleton, of Compound Security Systems, Cambridgeshire, said he came up with the idea after reading about hearing levels changing with age. Scientists say the head, ears and auditory canals of children are shaped differently from those of adults, allowing greater amplification of high-frequency sounds. A police spokesman said, "There's a lot of concern about anti-social behaviour. If this is a way of stopping that, we'll be looking into it with interest." The new device's high-frequency electronic pulses are produced by a tone generator which is fitted with a siren horn similar to the ones used in car security alarms and smoke detectors.

It emits bleeps at half-second intervals and has a range of between 20 and 30 metres. It only affects youngsters because their hearing is more acute than adults. The box is similar to an underground gardening alarm which is inaudible to humans, but stops moles digging up their lawn. It is plugged into the mains and controlled by a timer set from inside the shop. It can be set to when older schoolchildren are most likely to hang around, automatically coming on between noon and 2pm, 3pm and 5pm, and 8pm and 11pm. (Source: Sunday Mirror)