Police useTaser threat 500 times on children

Police used Tasers when dealing with children at least 538 times last year and fired them on 43 of those occasions, according to a new report.

The total number includes occasions when officers drew their Taser, aimed it at a child, or fired it.

More than a quarter of the incidents (147) were against children aged 15 or younger and the youngest child fired on was 12, figures released to the Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE) by 44 English and Welsh police forces under freedom showed.

The charity defines children as under-18s the measure used by the United Nations, which has called for the use of Tasers against children to be banned. The campaigners warned that even if Tasers are not fired, brandishing them or using them as a threat can cause children “immense fear and distress”.

Separate data also showed that socalled of information laws “spit hoods” were used on children, with the youngest 15 yearsold, on at least 24 occasions by police in England in the first nine months of 2016, which can be “extremely distressing”.

The charity also accused the Government of ignoring other recommendations from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which in June urged Britain to follow its own law and stop children being placed in adult mental health wards.

Instead, 202 children experiencing a mental health crisis were admitted to adult mental health wards in 2015/16, a 43% increase on 2011/12, data released to the charity by 33 English NHS Trusts or Foundations showed. Of these, 10 of the children were under 15 years old – up from two in 2011-12.

Louise King, director of CRAE said: “Our report reveals that Government has ignored the UN Committee’s urgent calls to protect the basic needs and rights of some of our most vulnerable children including those suffering from poor mental health.”