Girl, 13, avoids prison sentence

A 13-YEAR-OLD girl accused of hanging a five-year-old boy from a tree was yesterday spared custody and given a 12-month referral order by magistrates.

The schoolgirl, who was 12 at the time of the attack and cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared before a Dewsbury youth court after earlier pleading guilty to inflicting actual bodily harm on the youngster and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Her victim was found with a red ligature type mark around his neck and bruises on his body following the attack in a wood in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire in May.

Yesterday the girl’s solicitor Mr Anastasis Tasou gave her account of the incident. He said his client denied hanging the boy from a tree but had used a piece of wire to tie the boy to a tree around his neck.

The solicitor said his client realised the young boy was in distress and called for an ambulance.

Because he was so upset, she decided to take him to a nearby takeaway where she bought him a can of pop.

Mr Tasou described the police’s behaviour as “reprehensible” as they had treated the girl as an adult.