Ten-year-old held in cell overnight as ‘inhuman’ child detentions rise

A 10-year-old child was held in a cell (file image)
Ian Waldie/Getty Images
Justin Davenport17 March 2016
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A child aged 10 was among thousands of young people held overnight in police cells in London last year, new figures have revealed.

The 10-year-old was the youngest of 7,695 cases of children under 18 being kept behind bars for at least four hours between midnight and 8am.

The figures — for April to December 2015 — represent a 10 per cent rise on the same period the previous year.

In 2013 and 2014, the total number of children held overnight fell.

The detentions occurred even though the law says children should be transferred to local authority accommodation wherever possible.

Today Labour described holding children as young as 10 in cells as “inhuman” saying council housing shortages meant there was nowhere else for tham to go. Twelve children detained overnight in the capital last year were aged 11 and 65 were 12. The one 10-year-old compares with four children of the same age being detained the previous year.

Labour London Assembly Member Andrew Dismore said: “Whatever they’ve been accused of, it is totally inappropriate, indeed unlawful, for 10-year-olds to be held on their own overnight in a police cell.

“The experience of being locked in a cell overnight is designed to be unpleasant and should never be inflicted on such a young child. It is bad enough that there are teenagers held in cells but when you get small children aged 10, these are primary school children.

“I do not blame the police but the Government has squeezed local authorities so badly that there is nowhere for them to go. It’s inhuman that government penny-pinching appears to have resulted in children as young as 10 being locked up in police cells overnight.” The number of 14-year-olds detained overnight in London last year rose by 32 per cent to 896 and the number for 15-year-olds was up by seven per cent to 1,541.

The Howard League for Penal Reform said there had been a 49 per cent fall in the number of child arrests in London in the past four years but added: “Today’s figures show that there is clearly more work to do because valuable police resources are being wasted on needlessly detaining children.

“Holding children as young as 10 in police cells overnight is unjustifiable. It is a frightening and intimidating experience that does more harm than good.”

The Met police said that there were circumstances where the overnight detention of a child was inevitable, either because of a police investigation or because there was no alternative accommodation.

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