Ernest Norton
Mr Norton was practising cricket with
his son in the tennis courts
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'Stoning' death boys cause havoc at Old BaileyBack to Communities
source: http://www.24dash.com/communities/26950.htm
A judge ordered the parents of five boys accused of manslaughter to keep them under control after their unruly behaviour caused havoc at the Old Bailey.
The youngsters were caught causing "mischief" in the court while they were being tried for killing 67-year-old Ernest Norton, it can be reported today.
Judge Warwick McKinnon was forced to apply new bail conditions in the middle of the trial after their antics were reported to him...
He told the court: "It has been brought to my attention that the defendants are wandering around unaccompanied and conducting themselves in such a way that staff members are worried...."
Two of them had been seen hanging out of windows, he said...
He ordered that they should be accompanied by an appropriate adult or solicitor while in the precincts of the court.
The trial has been held under special conditions to take into account the unusually young age of the defendants.
Neither barristers nor the judge wore formal court gowns or wigs and breaks in evidence have been much more frequent than usual to help the youngsters cope.
Each one of them has been accompanied to court every day by a parent to sit in the dock alongside them.
But it was not enough to stop one of the defendants, a 14-year-old boy, from ...dozing off during the trial.
The court has heard that the boys belonged to a gang, with its own website called "TNE" or "The New Estate"...
On the day of Mr Norton's death the five defendants had gone along, armed with a baseball bat, to confront another group, but were chased off by a passer-by...who took the bat from them, the trial heard.
Earlier that day they had been amusing themselves by smashing windows at a disused factory and being "mouthy" to staff at Erith leisure centre, jurors heard.
But Nicholas Valios QC, defending the youngest boy, who was just ten at the time...He claimed the boys were not a "gang of anti-social youths", as he said the prosecution had sought to portray them.
"Every day one has read something about gangs of people killing innocent others, people kicked or knifed to death or shot dead by youths who have been terrorising estates. That really isn't this case," Mr Valios said.
