Why was teen free to be a danger?

A JUDGE has questioned why a tearaway teenager was free to kill.

Judge Alan Parker shook his head in disbelief upon learning the 15-year-old - who crashed a stolen van in Parkfield Road, Newbold, causing the death of his 17-year-old passenger Oliver Hawker - had been arrested and bailed three times in two months before the fatal day on April 3.

The court heard the boy, who cannot be named due to his age, used the van as a 'deadly weapon' - driving it at speeds of up to 70mph along residential streets before losing control and crashing.

The boy pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving, along with dangerous driving, burglary, aggravated vehicle taking causing death, having no licence or insurance and twice failing to stop after accidents.

In court it emerged the boy - who had a string of convictions going back to the age of ten - had already been arrested and released on bail three times since February 1 for recent allegations of burglary and aggravated vehicle taking.

Judge Parker said: "Had he not been granted bail, someone who is now deceased would be alive.

"Whoever decided he should be granted bail needs to search their conscience, whether that was the police, the Crown Prosecution Service or the lower court."

And sentencing the boy to four-and-a-half years detention, Judge Parker added there was nothing he could say to ease the pain of those mourning Oliver.

Judge Parker said: "It is a most unhappy fact a decision was made (on March 21) to grant you bail again. Had you been kept in custody, Oliver, I am confident, would still be alive. Everything that happened on April 3 happened while you were in bail three times over.

"Oliver was thrown out of the vehicle and, it is to be hoped, killed immediately rather than in any way suffered.

"Mercifully all this happened during the school holidays, so there was not the risk of a large number of children being in the vicinity of the school (Newbold Riverside) at that time.

"Your driving was a prolonged, deliberate, persistent course of conduct. You were using the deadly weapon of a motor vehicle as a plaything, with tragic consequences.

"On the credit side, you surrendered yourself to the police after about three hours and you confessed. I accept you are wracked with remorse."

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