‘Sadistic’ Edlington child torturers jailed for at least five years

Two young brothers who attacked and tortured two other boys and left them for dead in wasteland near the South Yorkshire pit village of Edlington were today given indeterminate sentences for a crime which shocked the nation.

The two brothers, who were aged 10 and 11 and the time of the attack last April and are now aged 11 and 12, will have to serve a minimum tariff of five years – after which time a decision will be made on their future. The sentencing follows a three-day hearing this week in which the judge, Mr Justice Keith, listened to harrowing accounts of how the boys lured their victims to a secluded spot and subjected them to 90 minutes of violence and sexual humiliation in April last year.

The nine-year-old and 11-year-old victims were strangled, hit with bricks, made to eat nettles, stripped and forced to sexually abuse each other,

He told them: “The fact is this was prolonged, sadistic violence for no reason other than that you got a real kick out of hurting and humiliating them.

“The bottom line for the two of you is that I’m sure you both pose a very high risk of serious harm to others.

“Your crimes are truly exceptional.”

An official review of the case leaked to the BBC listed 31 separate occasions in which social services and other agencies failed to take action against the two boys, although it is not to be published in full and Mr Mr Justice Keith was himself refused a copy of it.

The brothers showed no emotion as the sentences were passed. As they were led out of court, the mother of their younger victim banged on a dividing screen in the courtroom and shouted: “You evil little b******s. I hope someone does that to you.”

The brothers had admitted causing their victims grievous bodily harm with intent. They denied a more serious charge of attempted murder and there was no trial after the prosecution accepted their pleas.

Both pleaded guilty to robbing one of the boys of a mobile phone and the other of cash. They also admitted two counts of intentionally causing a child to engage in sexual activity.

The brothers also admitted causing another 11-year-old actual bodily harm a week before the young boys were attacked. Mr Justice Keith told the boys: “Neither of you need me to tell you how shocking your attack upon (the first 11-year-old boy) was and how appalling and terrible your treatment of (the two other boys) was.”

The judge outlined the violence used by the boys and added: “What it amounted to was torture.”

Speaking about the sexual offences committed by the two defendants, Mr Justice Keith said: “I don’t think that you got a sexual thrill out of any of that in the same way that robbing them… wasn’t about gain.

“It was all part of the torture and humiliation you wanted to subject them to. By recording parts of what you did on a mobile, you made at least some of this an example of happy slapping.”

Speaking about the effect the attack had had on the victims, the judge added: “Their physical and emotional scars will live with them for a long time to come. Their relationship with each other has been seriously affected and their parents have been left with a strong sense of guilt, which they didn’t begin to deserve, about whether they could have done more to protect their boys.”

The judge heard yesterday how the brothers watched ultra-violent movies as part of a “toxic home life” of “routine aggression, violence and chaos”.

One of the boys watched the gruesome Saw movies when he was as young as 10 and was also familiar with the Chucky films as well as pornography DVDs. He also smoked cannabis from the age of nine and drank cider.

Peter Kelson QC, representing the elder brother, described how the boys’ mother told psychiatrists about years of domestic violence perpetrated by the boys’ father on her and her five sons.

Mr Kelson described one incident when her partner said he would “take a knife to her and slice her face to bits”.

He added: “These threats were made in front of the children.”

The judge said today that pre-sentence and psychiatric reports compiled about the two defendants made “grim reading”.

Speaking about their content, he said: “You chose your victims because of their vulnerability and you wanted to assert your dominance over them by (in the older brother’s case) the use of aggression, extreme violence and sexual degradation, targeted to inflict maximum pain in order to gain a sense of power and control over their lives.