AstonChronicle

A GROUP of young boys given a suspended jail sentence for conning elderly people out of money, Damag-ing properties and for harrasing the public. The group who named them selves as Sparkton has also received a three year anti-social behaviour order. Due to the remaining cul-prits yet to be caught we still have a threat to the society.Turn to page 3 for full story >

Our PrideDestroyed by ASBO’s

Sunday 10th October 2010 www.ach.co.uk

Broadway School - Demolition starts Broadway School’s demoliton and mod-elling has begun, all the staff and stu-dents are backing the idea and are ex-cited with the new building. Broadway School has been funded with £13 million as part of the “new schools, better im-provement” project. School Headteach-er Mr Ronald Skelton speaks about the importance of the new building and how it will make the students aim higher and “be the best they can be!”.

Continues page 4

Out with the old, in with the new.

VSAston Villa prepare to entertain Birming-ham City at Villa Park at lunchtime on Sun-day, looking to continue an impressive record. The Villans are clearly on top, hav-ing won 30 and lost only 14 of the 59 games.

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Young thugs think ASBOs are ‘badge of honour’.

Anti-social behaviour orders have become a “badge of hon-our” among young yobs who re-gard them as glamorous must-have accessories, a report said today.A survey by the Youth Jus-tice Board (YJB) found concerns about the Government’s flagship anti-social behaviour measure.The in-depth survey also found 49 per cent of under-18s breached their Asbos.The report concluded: “High lev-els of breach had led some sen-tencers to question how much im-pact Asbos were having on the behaviour of individual young people.“A considerable number of respond-ents alluded to the potential for the order to become ‘glamorous’.”One magistrate told the YJB’s year-long research programme: “It’s be-ing used as a badge of honour.”Parents and carers of young peo-ple handed the controversial or-ders said they were seen as a “di-ploma” and boosted “street cred”.“Some of the friends are left out now because they’re not on an Asbo,” said the mother of three young men who were all on Asbos. “I know a boy that’s hell-bent on getting an Asbo because he feels left out.”Analysis of 137 Asbo cases found 67 breached an order at least once.Of the breachers, 42 (31 per cent of the total number) broke their con-ditions on more than one occasion.Among that group, six yobs breached their Asbo on six occasions or more.One police officer in Aston criti-cised the use of geographical “exclu-sion zones” as part of the conditions.He said: “You’re inviting little Johnnie Smith to... run over the imaginary line and then run away. You’ve actually

invented a game for the kids to play.”Some Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) have argued that As-bos “undermine” other work they do to improve youths’ behaviour.School teacher Rod Morgan said: “Asbos can – and do – work incredibly well but they need to be used correctly. That means exhausting every preventa-tive measure in the community first and ensuring that YOTs are not excluded.”The report showed that 22 per cent of young people handed Asbos were black or Asian – two-and-a-half times the level of ethnic mi-norities in the population at large.The research was conducted by the Policy Research Bureau and crime reduction charity Nacro, looking at Asbos given to young people between January 2004 and January 2005 in 10 unnamed areas of England and Wales.Nacro said it was concerned As-bos were used too readily with “worryingly high” applications for Asbos on some ethnic groups. Aston’s Chief executive Paul Ca-vadino said: “Asbos should only be used as a last resort but some ar-eas are using them as an early option without first trying other approaches.“The wide definition of ‘anti-social behaviour’ which can re-sult in an Asbo has created enor-mous potential for discrimination.”He called on ministers to set up “rigorous” ethnic monitoring.Shadow home secretary David Davis said: “This is yet another demonstra-tion of the Government’s total failure to tackle crime. The Asbo system was set up as a headline-catching gimmick.” Written by Mohammed Farhan Azad

AstonChronicle

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r tomorrow:Sunshine and showers in eastern england, these clearing during the af-ternoon. Elsewhere, largely sunny after a frosty start for many. cold but much less windy.

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