EVIL: Sick past crimes of torture boy brothers revealed
THE child torturers who carried out barbarous assaults on two boys in South Yorkshire tormented a disabled man and tried to blow up a café in the months before their vicious attacks, The Star can reveal.
A disturbing catalogue of previous criminal activity continued to emerge today - as it was revealed the cost of keeping the savage brothers locked up will run to 426,000 a year.
The duo, aged just 10 and 12, who cannot be named, are currently in secure children's homes which charge 213,000 a year to house one child, the Youth Justice Board revealed.
Pressure was growing today for answers as to how the pair were able to carry out the sickening torture of two boys aged nine and 11 in Edlington, Doncaster, in April, despite being in council care at the time.
They had already appeared in court numerous times previously for violence, assault, battery and burglary. Doncaster Council have refused to comment in detail and said a Serious Case Review is underway.
Today Joy Silcock, who owns a caf at Sandall Park in Doncaster, revealed the pair tried to blow up her premises after she refused to give cigarettes to the younger of the two.
And invalid angler Melvin Gleadall revealed he too was driven to despair by the younger boy - who tossed his fishing tackle into Sandall Park fishing lake, found out where he lived, and pelted his home with eggs and smashed his windows with bricks.
Both victims said they were not surprised to learn the boys were responsible for the horrors in Edlington.
Joy said: "These two aren't mischievous. They're out of control, and evil."
Melvin, a diabetic who suffers a serious lung condition, added: "Ordinary, decent people need protecting. They're capable of just about anything. They should lock them up and throw away the key."
Joy, aged 56, got to know the boys after they started visiting the fishing lake at Sandall Park. Initially, she said, the younger boy was "really polite, almost sweet".
But he "flipped totally" one day when she refused to give him a cigarette.
"It was like somebody had turned a switch, like Jekyll and Hyde," she said. "He went red in the face and was swearing and shouting."
The boy and his brother, then 11, returned to the caf days later, built a bonfire next to the gas pipe, piled rubbish onto a crate by the back door, and dropped a match onto the lot. The blaze caused 5,000 of damage.
"It was their way of getting their own back on me because I wouldn't give the boy one cigarette," said Joy. "We spoke to the police about them and actually told them, 'They're going to end up killing someone', but nothing happened."
Melvin, also 56, was terrorised for months before police responded to pleas from his elderly parents and launched an investigation last year.
He said the younger boy seemed genuinely interested in fishing when he first started chatting to Melvin at the same fishing lake in 2007.
"I thought he seemed a nice lad to begin with," he said. "He just seemed genuinely curious about how big the fish were and how I went about catching them."
But, just as Joy experienced, the boy's attitude seemed to change completely overnight, said Melvin.
"He started using the vilest language, shouting insults at the top of his voice and calling me all the names under the sun. He'd turn up with mates, and they'd surround me swearing and cursing and taking the mickey. They knew I couldn't defend myself - and that's why they picked on me rather than anybody else.
"One day he threw my tackle into the lake and ran off laughing, saying I couldn't catch him. Another time he grabbed all the gear that belonged to a disabled angler, and tossed that in the water as well.
"Things were so bad I was scared to go to the lake. I know it sounds ridiculous being terrified of a 10-year-old, but I was."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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