Three-year-old criminal suspects in UK

Police officers in Scotland have visited the home of a three-year-old after receiving a complaint of damage to household property, British media report.

The Daily Mail says it is one of two unrelated cases in the UK where police have questioned a three-year-old after complaints of vandalism, making the children the youngest known suspects in British criminal history.

Ten children aged five and under have been investigated since May this year for a variety of alleged crimes, including sexual offences.

The youngest offender was a six-year-old arrested in Bedfordshire in England on suspicion of robbery in June.

Details of the suspects' cases were disclosed in documents obtained under freedom of information laws, and have caused concern among crime campaigners who believe they provide further evidence of Britain's deepening social problems, The Daily Telegraph reports.

"This is a clear manifestation of the first signs of offending," said shadow home secretary Chris Grayling.

"These instances underline the very deep social problems we have in some parts of the country. It is part of the very complex picture we call broken Britain."

In England and Wales, the age of criminal responsibility is 10, while in Scotland the age is eight - the lowest in Europe.

Figures disclosed this month show that more than 6,000 offences have been committed in Britain by children under 10 over the past three years, according to media reports.

These include nine-year-olds being accused of rape, and eight-year-olds believed to have caused grievous bodily harm.

Other alleged offences include possession of knives, assaults, theft and burglaries.

Esther Rantzen, a campaigner for child rights in the UK, has called for the introduction of a new charge of criminal neglect, which could be used to prosecute the parents of very young children who commit serious offences.

"When you hear cases like this it makes you wonder what is going on in family life. You have to ask yourself why," said Rantzen.

The figures have been released just weeks after two boys aged 12 and 10 admitted torturing two other boys in an attack in Edlington near Doncaster in England.

- NZ HERALD STAFF