Bed found for boy who held up dairy

Photo / Supplied.

A 12-year-old boy locked up in a Nelson police station interview room overnight as there was nowhere else for him to go has today been flown out the city to a bed in a secure residential facility, police say.

The boy was the eldest in a group of children as young as seven who held up a Nelson dairy with a knife on Wednesday.

After a court ordered he be placed in welfare care, no immediate bed could be found for him so police and social workers took him to a motel.

When he ran away, they were forced to take him back to the police station and lock him up in the interview room.

Nelson Bays area commander Inspector Brian McGurk said he basically spent the night on the floor, which was inappropriate, but there was nowhere else for him to go as there were no residential beds in Nelson and a shortage around the country for young people.

A Family Court hearing will decide his future.

Mr McGurk said it was an unusual intervention for police, who were forced to seek a declaration under Section 78 of the Children, Young Persons and their Families Act, putting the child temporarily into the custody of the director-general of social welfare.

"We do it very seldom, and it's for young people, children that are at high risk of offending, high risk that their care and protection needs are not being met," Mr McGurk said.

"It's a high end intervention for us."

Police were also called to his school yesterday after he threatened people there, the Nelson Mail reported.

Child, Youth and Family (CYF) said in a statement it did not think it was in any way ideal for a young person to have to spend a night in a police interview room.

"Unfortunately in the end the circumstances meant this was the only option."

CYF were notified that police had received a custody order for this young person at 4pm yesterday.

"At this point our social workers worked very hard to try and find him a place to stay - with family or other caregivers.

"An appropriate home couldn't be found at that late stage. We didn't try to find a place in a CYF residence at that point, as there are none in Nelson and we wouldn't have been able to arrange the air travel of this distressed young person in time.

"He was then placed in a motel with two staff members, but his behaviour became very challenging mid-evening and they were unable to contain him in the motel.

"One of social workers then spent the night at the police station with the young man, who slept there on a mattress. It had become clear he needed to be in a secure facility.

"He was sent to a Care and Protection Residence today. Our staff worked extremely hard to do their best for this young man whose behaviour was escalating out of control."

- NZPA