12-YEAR-OLD DEALT CRACK AND HEROIN

A 12-year-old boy caught by police with a packet of sweets in one pocket and
UKP500 worth of heroin, 18 rocks of crack cocaine and UKP400 in cash in the
other while cycling between customers was yesterday ordered to be detained
for two years. The slightly built boy, now 13 and believed to be Britain's
youngest convicted crack dealer, cried out for his mother yesterday as he
was dragged screaming from the dock of Inner London crown court .

A "horrified and sad" Judge Quentin Campbell said he had no option but to
detain the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

While he accepted that the boy had not been the prime mover in the drug
dealing, and that he had almost certainly been used by older men as a
courier, the judge said there was no doubt he was a "perfectly willing
participant".

As the door leading to the cells was opened, the boy turned towards his
mother and began screaming: "I want to see my mummy, I want my mummy,"
before kicking out at the officers trying to force him from court. He
eventually fell to the floor, still struggling violently, and was carried
out.

The boy was arrested after being stopped and searched by four plain clothes
policemen in September last year. As they tried to stop him the boy slid off
his bike and tried to run away. A further escape attempt followed as
officers tried to search him. The drugs and the money were found crammed
into his tracksuit pockets.

The boy was handcuffed and led to a nearby police car. More crack cocaine, a
small amount of cannabis and a further UKP1,600 was found shortly afterwards
at a friend's flat, which the boy had moved into after a row with his
mother.

The judge, who was reduced to tears at an earlier hearing when a jury
returned guilty verdicts against the boy for possession of heroin and crack
cocaine with intent to supply, warned the boy that had he been an adult he
would have been facing five years in jail. He said society had to respond
not only to the commission of crime but to its causes.

"One cause of crime is that youngsters are not at school and it does seem a
great pity -and I make no further comment as to whether anybody is to
blame-that no educational authority took up the fact that you were not
effectively going to school at all for quite a long period of time."

The judge said that while he had taken into account various mitigating
factors, the seriousness of the case meant "deterrence is paramount" and the
boy had to be imprisoned.

"Any sentence that might be looked on as an encouragement to very, very
young defendants to deal in drugs or encourages older and unscrupulous
dealers to make use of very young persons as a tool in their trade, would
cause complete havoc."

After the verdicts the boy's mother, who brought him up alone, said that
while she felt "terrible", nothing about her son's behaviour aroused any
suspicions and insisted that he had been bullied into acting as a courier
for older boys.