‘Feral’ teens get life for manslaughter

A PAIR of “feral” teenagers who subjected a harmless drifter to months of bullying before savagely beating and tossing him into a river were jailed for life yesterday.

Craig Dodd and Ryan Palin, now aged 17 and 15, were sentenced after admitting the manslaughter of 40-year-old David Atherton last May.

Warrington Crown Court heard they were part of a teenage gang who preyed on vulnerable adults in the Cheshire town.

One of the victims was Mr Atherton, who had alcoholism difficulties but was considered polite and friendly by his social workers and neighbours.

Mr Atherton was forced into letting the gang use his flat to drink and smoke cannabis.

The teenagers also subjected him to regular abuse and humiliation – a practice they termed “terroring”.

Patrick Harrington QC, prosecuting, said: “The two defendants, often with others, were involved in a campaign of terror and violence directed at David Atherton.

“They had their own term for this type of thing they did. They described it as ‘terroring’.

“If one were to search for a single adjective to describe their behaviour, it would be ‘feral’. They were wild and untamed.”

The two boys had been drinking and smoking cannabis when they visited Mr Atherton’s flat in Howley, Warrington, on May 8 last year.

An upstairs neighbour, Philip Wilson, heard the beating and went down to find Mr Atherton with a bruised and bloodied face, along with Dodd and Palin.

Mr Wilson invited Mr Atherton to take refuge in his flat but the confused victim was led away by his tormentors.

It later emerged that the boys walked him to a secluded river bank, continued beating him and then threw him into the Mersey.

The body was found a week later after one of the boys’ friends offered to show Cheshire Police officers a dead body if they would give him a lift home.

Dodd and Palin were initially charged with murder but the prosecution accepted guilty pleas to charges of manslaughter on the day of the trial.

Mr Justice Hodge sentenced them to detention for life, with minimum tariffs of three-and-a-half years and three years respectively before they are considered for parole.