Young brothers in ‘horrendous’ attack on boys

TWO young brothers pleaded guilty yesterday to causing grievous bodily harm with intent over a “horrendous” attack on two other youngsters which has prompted inescapable comparisons with the 1993 murder of James Bulger.

The victims were hit with sticks and bricks, one had a sink dropped on his head and a noose put round his head, the other was burnt with a cigarette on his eyelids and ear during the attack in Edlington, near Doncaster, in April.

The brothers, who were aged 10 and 11 at the time, admitted the grievous bodily harm charge when they appeared at Sheffield Crown Court, but denied further charges of attempted murder. Prosecutors accepted the brothers’ guilty plea to the lesser charge.

The young victims, aged nine and 11, were lured to wasteland by their attackers who said they wanted to show them animals such as toads and foxes. They were then robbed and viciously attacked.

The brothers, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were arrested after the nine-year-old boy was found wandering through the village covered in blood while his 11-year-old uncle was discovered unconscious in a nearby wooded ravine.

The brothers also pleaded guilty to robbing one of the boys of a mobile phone and the other of cash. They also admitted two counts of intentionally causing a child to engage in sexual activity.

The pair, who were well-known to social services and were in foster care at the time of the incident, also admitted a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm in connection with an attack on another 11-year-old boy a week earlier.

Prosecutor Nicholas Campbell said on the day of the second, more serious, incident the boys should have been at a police station answering questions about the first attack.

He told the court the new offence of causing grievous bodily harm with intent carried the same maximum sentence as that of attempted murder and the families of the victims had been told about the decision and understood it.

“Whatever [the victims] may have believed the intention of their attackers was, it is not to be suggested that they are lying or mistaken about the nature or the degree of the violence used upon them or the threats to kill them,” Campbell said.

The prosecution’s case will not be outlined until a sentencing hearing at a later date, but an earlier hearing was told details of the prolonged attacks.

It heard that the younger boy had a sharp stick rammed into his arm and cigarettes pushed into the gaping wound. The brothers also tried to force the boys into performing sex acts on each other.

The nine-year-old tried to ram a stick down his own throat after he was told to “go away and kill himself” by one of his attackers. He was also forced to eat nettles. The victims are now said to be recovering well.

“This crime is extremely shocking and it does rank up there with the most serious that I’ve ever dealt with,” Detective Superintendent Michael Mason told reporters. “It’s a very unusual case, it’s not something I have come across in the past but, being a father, it does come across and strike home how horrendous the crime has been.”

Due to the brothers’ ages, special measures were put in place to make sure they did not feel intimidated, with the judge and barristers not wearing gowns and wigs.

The pair were allowed to sit at the back of the court, rather than in the dock, with social workers next to them to help explain the proceedings and answer any questions.

The case has been widely compared with that of two-year-old James Bulger who was murdered by two 10-year-old boys in Liverpool 16 years ago.