A 15-year-old pupil at Hitchin Boys’ School, who started a fire in a building there, has been given a 12 month Youth Rehabilitation Order on Friday, November 13, 2020.
The boy had been excused a PE lesson so that he could attend a one on one teaching session in part of the school known as The School House.
But St Albans Crown Court was told today Friday that, on arrival there, the boy started a fire on the first floor and tried to start two other fires which went out.
In the dock, with his father sitting nearby in the public gallery, the youth – who is now 16 – appeared for sentence having pleaded guilty earlier to a single charge of arson carried out between 11am and 12 midday on October 22 last year.
Edmund Blackman prosecuting said the boy, who cannot be identified because of his age, used matches to start the fires and his DNA was found on one of them.
Judge Michael Kay QC, hearing the case, was told the fire which had taken hold and set off a fire alarm, had been started on the carpet of a room on the first floor which burnt the wooden floorboards underneath.
A second fire in the same room started in a drawer when he set fire to some tissues, had failed to take hold, as had an attempt to start a fire in a plastic air vent.
As a result of the fire on the carpet setting off the alarm, the fire brigade attended and the court was told laptops in the building suffered smoke and water damage.
Pupils and staff had to be evacuated and, in total, the damage and cost of the fire to the school came to £25,000.
Gregg Kriegler defending said the boy realised how close he was to receiving a custodial sentence.
The court was told he had three convictions for five offences.
Passing sentence, Judge Kay told the boy it was clear that when he committed the offence last October he had “gone off the rails.”
He said the previous year the boy had been convicted of an offence of battery and had gone on to commit a shoplifting offence.
That had been followed by two convictions for possession of a knife and he had eventually received a Youth Referral Order.
“What you did on October 22 was really offending of a type which was much more serious,” said the judge.
He said that had the boy been 17 or over, he could have expected a spell inside a young offenders’ institute.
The judge said it was evident the boy had a strong supportive family and there were now signs that he had turned a corner.
As a consequence and because of his age, the judge said he would not impose a custodial sentence.
Instead he told the youth he would be the subject of a 12 month Youth Rehabilitation Order and Activity Requirement.
The boy was told he would also be subject to a three month electronically monitored home curfew when he will have to be indoors between 8pm and 6am.
Judge Kay told the teenager: “You are really at the end of the road and you are very close to losing your freedom. So, if you are brought back to court for not following these orders, you can expect to lose your freedom.”
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