Under-17s crime: drugs, assault and even murder

Children as young as 10 and 11 are among the pint-sized delinquents arrested by police in Maidstone for serious crimes such as grievous bodily harm and knife possession.

Youngsters aged between 10 and 17 have been detained on suspicion of a litany of lawbreaking including murder, common assault and criminal damage.

But the total number of preteen troublemakers to feel the long arm of the law in the borough has dropped by almost half on the previous year, with six youngsters held for offences in 2017 compared to 11 in 2016.

The data, provided by Kent Police under the Freedom of Information Act, shows 835 people aged between 10 and 17 were arrested in Maidstone between 2015 and 2017 on suspicion of more than 100 different offences.

Meanwhile, across Kent there were 8,345 arrests made over the same period, though the number of detentions has decreased year-on-year, the data claims.

Among the crimes recorded county-wide were an 11-yearold held on suspicion of GBH, a 12-year-old accused of intimidating a witness and a 13- year- old suspected of endangering the safety of an aircraft.

Common assault and cases of criminal damage under £5,000 dominated the list of offences.

There were 28 arrests made on suspicion of murder or attempted murder since 2015 across the county, with 13 of those coming in the last year.

Among those held was a 16-year-old boy accused of killing Wayne Chester, 50, with a single punch outside a McDonald’s in Maidstone last September.

Two other boys, aged 14 and 15, were detained in connection with the murder of Razvan Sirbu, a Romanian man who was living rough at a beauty spot. They continue to be on police bail.

Alex Macdonald and Charlie White, both 19, were handed life sentences for the crime last week.

It has emerged since the trial that the family of Macdonald received a grant from Kent County Council as part of its Troubled Families Programme to try and help them turn their lives around.

At the time, the Kent Messenger was told Macdonald, 15, was determined to change his ways, having been in trouble over assault and criminal damage, and was searching for an apprenticeship.