Two young brothers who tortured two other children using “prolonged and sadistic violence” are beginning a minimum period of five years in custody. Nick Martin reports.
The accompanying report contains details of the case which you may find upsetting
The assault in the South Yorkshire village of Edlington shocked the country. Tonight the council in charge of the boys’ care admitted it had been “preventable” and promised to learn “important lessons”.
Sentencing the two brothers, now 11 and 12, the judge said this had been “prolonged and sadistic violence for no other reason than to humiliate the two boys”.
He said they posed a “serious risk of harm to others” and that what they had done was “truly exceptional”.
The boys attacked their victims after luring them onto wasteland last April. They threatened to kill the pair, then aged nine and 11, before stamping on them and attacking them with broken glass, bricks and sticks.
One boy was forced to strip naked and perform a sex act.
The brothers later told police they had only stopped hitting their victims because their “arms were aching”.
The older brother could give no reason for the attack other than boredom, saying there was “nowt to do”.
Sergeant Richard Vernon, from South Yorkshire Police, read out a statement on behalf of the victims’ families.
It read: “We have found the last nine months to be an extremely difficult and testing time.
“Hearing the evidence in court has been deeply upsetting for us all.”
The brothers were well known to Edlington residents as troublemakers. Neighbours had even tried to film them throwing stones at people’s houses. More crucially, they were known to police and social services too.
Family life for the two brothers was descibed as chaotic; one of routine aggression and violence. In court it was described as a “toxic home life”.
The pair had witnessed their mother being beaten by their father, they had watched violent films and pornography. The eldest had smoked cannabis and drunk cider from a young age.
One anonymous neighbour told Channel 4 News: “It might sound weird but I feel sorry for them. But another part of me loathes them.”