Boys in tears after conviction for killing of 67-year-old

FIVE boys aged from 12 to 14 burst into tears yesterday as they were convicted of “a completely unnecessary, pointless and random attack” after killing a man playing cricket with his son.

Ernest Norton, 67, had a heart attack and collapsed after being hit by stones and spat at in a leisure centre.

The five, one of whom was only 10 at the time, were found guilty of manslaughter and violent disorder at the Old Bailey.

Police said the gang had been hell-bent on causing trouble and had caused the death of a loving father.

Two brothers aged 12 and 13, and three youths aged 14, will be sentenced on October 19.

Women on the jury wept as the youngsters sobbed uncontrollably and clung to their mothers and a father in the dock.

They began crying as they were told the jury had reached a verdict after three days of deliberating — and looked in disbelief and shock as the guilty verdict was delivered to each boy.

But it was in sharp contrast to their behaviour during the month-long trial when they became some of the youngest defendants tried at the court.

Judge Warwick McKinnon was forced to order the parents to keep the boys under control after complaints from court staff.

He said: “It has been brought to my attention that the defendants are wandering around unaccompanied and conducting themselves in such a way that staff members are worried that they may well get up to mischief.”

Two of them had been seen hanging out of windows, he said, and the behaviour had been causing staff “concern or worry.”

One of the 14-year-olds was seen using his jersey to rest his head on while he nodded off during the trial.

The court was told Mr Norton had been playing cricket with his 17-year-old son James on a Sunday afternoon in February last year when they came under a hail of stones and wood.

Two stones, one the size of half a brick, struck him on the temple and fractured his cheekbone, and he collapsed to the ground.

As he lay dying, his wife, Linda, rushed to his side, holding his hand and calling his name.

He died at the scene.

Ms Norton described how her husband, a former engineering draughtsman, had been a full-time house husband since losing his job when she was pregnant with their first child Gemma, now 26.

Just days before the end of the trial, Gemma gave birth to the couple’s first grandchild, Ceinwen.

“Now he has missed his first grandchild,” Ms Norton said.