From the [UK] Telegraph, [UK] Daily Mail, Yorkshire Evening Post:

The Leeds Crown Court in England has sentenced four children, ranging in age from 12 to 15,  in the savage beating of a 15-year-old boy with intellectual disabilities last year.

The children lured the victim into the woods last August where they punched and kicked him, stomped on his head, whipped him with tree branches, hit him with planks, urinated and spat on him, stuffed lit cigarettes up his nose, and then stripped him before dumping him in a shallow grave.

The victim was able to crawl free and received treatment for multiple bruises and lacerations all over his body. His mother said she believes he was targeted because he was easy prey.

Sentencing the four, Judge Kerry Macgill said: “This is one of the most difficult cases I have ever had to deal with. It is almost like a scene out of ‘Lord of The Flies’ where children are left to their own devices can do simply appalling things to other children.”

… The girl, now 15, was given 15 months of detention and the 13-year-old locked up for 12 months. The two younger children, now aged 12, were handed two-year supervision orders with a three-month curfew.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at 5:51 pm and is filed under criminal justice, intellectual/developmental disabilities, international, violence. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.