2000 tearaway school pupils on criminal charges

Published on Wednesday 29 December 2010 10:05

MORE than 2000 schoolchildren were charged with crimes in Edinburgh during the last year, including murder, sexual attacks, assault, and robbery and housebreaking.

New figures show a total of 135 youngsters aged between eight and ten were charged with offences ranging from lewd and libidinous behaviour to road traffic offences.

Assaulting police officers, mobbing and rioting, sodomy, carrying knives and public indecency were among the charges made against 2071 youngsters aged 11 to 15 in the Capital. The figures can include youngsters charged multiple times on separate occasions.

Police chiefs and social workers today said they were working together to tackle youth crime through early intervention.

But the latest figures suggest a possible drop in the number of youth offences in Edinburgh, where the majority of under-age crimes recorded by Lothian and Borders Police are made.

The arrests for murder related to two youngsters aged just 14 and 15, while two others were 16, who were charged by police following the tragic death of takeaway delivery driver Simon San in Lochend in August.

The murder charges were reduced in court, with 16-year-old John Reid sentenced to five years for culpable homicide, with Michael Roberts and Keir Rodger, both 16, jailed for assault. A 14-year-old youth, who cannot be identified, had his not guilty plea to assault accepted by the Crown.

Councillor Marilyne MacLaren, the city's children and families leader, said: "We know that early intervention is the key to tackling offending among young people and it's a top priority for us.

"The sooner we engage with young people who are showing signs of problematic behaviour, the bigger impact our staff can have on their lives. We want to see a long-term decrease in the number of youngsters referred to the Children's Panel, and through our Getting it Right for Every Child approach, we are seeing real progress."

Police, social workers, education staff and officials from the council's youth offending and antisocial behaviour units meet on a weekly basis as part of the Getting It Right For Every Child programme. The scheme assesses the needs of every child charged in Edinburgh during the previous seven days.

However, a hardcore group is behind a massive number of recorded offences. Figures released last year showed that an estimated 1200 crimes were committed by just ten teenagers in the Capital in 12 months.

The figures, released to the Evening News under freedom of information laws, showed that 18 eight-year-old boys and four eight-year-old girls were charged with offences in the Capital. The tally includes 35 nine-year-olds, 78 ten-year-olds, 99 11-year-olds, 164 12-year-olds, 472 13-year-olds, 595 14-year-olds, and 741 15-year-olds. The total of 2206 youngsters charged on different occasions during the year covers 1730 boys and 476 girls.