A mother who chose to go on a holiday to Ibiza instead of attending her son’s sentencing hearing for his role in the riots in Manchester has been ordered to pay £1,200 compensation and attend a six-month parenting course. Her 12-year-old son, whose name cannot be released because of his age, was accused of displaying “the worst type of feral behavior” during two riots in Manchester on July 31 and August 3. The mother said that she spent around £1,000 on the five-day trip to the Spanish island.
During the two separate incidents of disorder, the boy was identified to be part of a mob that attacked a bus outside a hotel housing asylum-seekers and then was part of a group that was captured on CCTV footage, kicking the windows of a vape shop and throwing a missile at a police van. A district judge at Manchester Magistrates’ Court told the youngster that he had displayed “the worst type of feral behaviour”. If he were an adult, he would have faced four to five years of imprisonment, but instead, he received a 12-month referral order.
The mother flew abroad for the holiday the day before her son was due to be sentenced. Her 12-year-old son was accompanied by his uncle to the hearing, and Judge Joanne Hirst said that the mother’s actions left her “frankly astonished” and said she would summon the woman to court to explain her absence. The mother said that her solicitor and the youth justice team did not tell her that she needed to be at the hearing. She said that each of them asked whether there was an appropriate adult to accompany him, and her brother fulfilled that criterion, which was the reason she chose to go on a holiday.
Parents who are liable to pay financial penalties when their children commit a crime under the Criminal Justice Act were ordered to pay £300 each towards the driver of the bus, a housing officer at the asylum hotel, an asylum seeker who was on the attacked bus, and a member of staff at the looted Sainsbury’s store, respectively. The boy, who has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), was defended by Catherine Baird at the court, who described him as a “lovely affectionate little boy” with a “chaotic” home life. The boy expressed his apologies to the judge and stated that he was now enrolled into a social work scheme and had taken up boxing to change his ways
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