‘Evil’ vandals as young as 11 who caused over £200,000 of damage to a £1.2million Grade II-listed home in Shanklin have been given a slap on the wrist and ordered to pay just £1,500 compensation each.
Over a month-long spree of destruction, the 6-bedroom house on Rectory Road was targeted by ‘mindless’ youths who smashed antiques, paintings, an ornate stained-glass window and 22 other windows, as well as squirting ketchup, creosote, bleach, oil and paint everywhere. They also damaged a wrought-iron chandelier, flipped over antique furniture, smashed a grandfather clock and even destroyed the homeowner’s beloved wedding dress.
The shocking extent of the damage, which left the property looking like a ‘whirlwind’ had ripped through it, rendered the house ‘practically uninhabitable’, as the youngsters – the oldest of whom was just 15 – wreaked havoc between May and June last year.
Chainsaws, axes and sledgehammers, taken from the garage, were used in ‘every bedroom of the property’ after the youngsters ran riot, leaving it looking like ‘a war zone’, the Isle of Wight Youth Court heard last Wednesday.
Other damage included bathroom taps being pulled off leaving water gushing everywhere and messages carved into mahogany window sills. Glass was found scattered everywhere and graffiti was scrawled on the walls.
Prosecutor Ann Smout, who has worked for the Crown Prosecution Service for over 22 years, said it was one of the most serious cases of this kind that she had dealt with.
Mrs Smout detailed to the court that the owners, Joanna and Matt Pittard, were in the address over Easter in April 2022. They had a week there and left the property clean and tidy and in very good order. The couple were then away from the house for around a month.
However, on 3rd June 2022, the gardener alerted the couple that there ‘may be some damage’ to the property and they returned the next day to ‘banging noises’, as it became clear ‘something was going on’ and youths were seen leaving the address.
In a statement read to the court, Mrs Pittard said:
“The whole of the property had been damaged. It is mindless and looks like a whirlwind has been through the property.
“We are horrified at the evil vandalism and attempts at arson at our property.
“It will take a long time time to recover financially and emotionally from this event.”
Mrs Smout told the court the work required to repair the house was ‘complex’ given the property’s listed status and the need for ‘specialist work’. To date, the owners have spent over £35,000 on repairs, but it is still ‘absolutely nowhere near finished’.
In interviews with Police, the youngsters responsible admitted to various degrees of involvement in their ‘impulsive’ damage, with 1 revealing they had created a ‘slip and slide’ in the bathroom.
A total of 7 perpetrators, who are now all aged between 13 and 16 and cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted criminal damage under joint enterprise at the Isle of Wight Youth Court last week. They included a 14-year-old girl, a 14-year-old boy and 2x 13-year-old boys from Shanklin, a 15-year-old boy from Newport, a 14-year-old girl from Godshill and a 16-year-old boy from Hythe in the New Forest.
In mitigation, the court heard the teenagers had expressed their ‘regret and remorse’ for what happened and had all had ‘improvements’ in their behaviour and attitude since.
Magistrate Keith Jones said he was ‘lost for words’ at their ‘disgraceful’ behaviour which had a ‘horrendous’ effect on the Pittard family.
Addressing 6 of the teens, with the 7th’s sentencing adjourned to a later date, he said:
“Your behaviour has been appalling and an absolute disgrace to all of you.
“We will never know who did what or exactly what happened – you are charged as joint enterprise so you are equally responsible.
“We certainly don’t want to see any of you back here again.”
The 6 teens were handed a 12-month referral order and ordered to pay £1,500 compensation for the ‘very personal impact on the family involved’.
The last defendant will be sentenced in November.
What a complete joke.
How the Fcuk will teenagers pay their fines, I suppose that will be via
their parents benefits.
Are Young Offenders homes or Borstals no longer open to house
such evil scum!
What a weak sentence, a person not paying their Council tax would get a
bigger fine.
The country is a joke, hence I will never vote again for a bunch of
useless B’stards.
I think you’ll find it’s the weak and pathetic judges on this island who are to blame for such leniency. They seem so out of touch with reality, they are not fit for purpose. Many kids nowadays are not being bought up to respect other people’s property and what they do for ‘laugh’ in their world is truly sick and twisted.
UNDERSTAND please, judges can never ever again give meaningful sentences to anyone but the worst as our prisons are full of enrichment as well as our own now.
Think see the problem
As a minimum punishment, these kids should be fitted with electronic tags and be under curfew until they are 18 years old.
Stick them in the Stocks and let honest law abiding islanders
Pelt them with eggs and tomatoes for a week
They won’t do it again!
Their parents should be forced to sell everything they own and pay these people £200,000.
It is a gurt slap in the face for the owners just getting a mere pittance towards the cost of putting it right.
Gaol the children until the parents stump up the cash, then neuter the entire family so they don’t reproduce.
They should be made to work on the repairs, it would bring home to them the amount if work it takes to restore damaged property and maybe it could teach them some skills for the future
They should have been sent to borstal…
Feral scum !!!!!
What on earth do they think they were doing?????
Total disrespect and stupidity, one day maybe the oiks will get a taste of reality?……
Karma !!!!!
Yes. But sadly borstal is no more
Shame as they would be screaming for mummy within 20seconds.
Borstal was the hardest thing i ever went through. But it straightened me out and iv bever done wrong since.
I’m sure these children all have money.
And if you’re gonna own property and hardly ever be there….shrug.
Take the phones, consoles off them and smash them up, scum. Premeditated, a very light slap on the wrist. Impulsive, no way, they went armed with some hefty tools to do this kind of destruction.
What a farce these courts are. Hit the parents with the full costs of the damage and name the scum kids.
Something is very wrong with “Youth Services” “Education” and more! The same old theories are not working and still, anything new is treated with contempt by “Experts” !
Surestart, youth clubs, school services have all been abolished or slashed by the Tories austerity government since 2012. Parents are often having to work several jobs now, to make ends meet. Austerity not only trashed public services (from potholes, courts in crisis, police cuts, nhs Crisis, leaking and freezing classrooms , ) it brought millions into poverty and stifled the economy and young people’s aspirations. It was unnecessary, a political choice to enrich the tory party chums and funders, the megarich, oligarchs and big business. Of course none of this excuses the horrendous behaviour of these kids, but it’s a fact people behave better in a society that is more equal, honest and hopeful.
Have you been able to read all this? 🙂
Your backside really must be hurting after that diatribe. These are feral scum and it has nothing to do with social inequalities.
More fool you I suspect
Thanks Janet for just about the best comments on here alas I fear it will have no effect on the bigots that always seem to be working their rather hateful selves on here
So you really believe these youngsters went on an orgy of destruction because of a lack of youth clubs and their parents being too busy doing several jobs to teach them that destroying other people’s property is wrong, Janet? Oh and because classrooms are too cold. Like to see your stats for millions being brought into poverty, and can’t wait for Labour to take the reins and make it all better. Or worse.
£1500 JOKE PROBABLY SPEND THAT ON THERE PHONE BILL FOR THE YEAR ,COMMUNITY SERVICE EVERY SATURDAY AND SUNDAY FOR A YEAR WOULD BE BETTER AND TEACH THEM REPECT AND WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU ACT LIKE A TWAT ,THIS COUNTRY IS TO SOFT AND THATS WHY PEOPLE TAKE THE PISS BECAUSE THERE IS NO DETARANT
To late you all now have a criminal record, hopefully all might change and appreciated and i respect other people’s property.
From the age of 10 you can be arrested as the law states from that age you should know right from wrong. I believe a week in YOI may give them a wake up call and we can only hope they grow up to be sensible adults. Maybe their parents/ guardians could do a stint as well, HMP Winchester, it may save the state alot of money in the future if they are all taught a lesson
The parents should be made to pay for their feral kids handywork.
So they just go and do it again somewhere else?
They must of been laughing leaving court?
Bring back the birch.
Best comment on here!
This is the result of interfering do gooders turning the law into an ass. Evil little shits got away with criminal damage and will taking the piss among themselves and their scummy low life friends and bragging about what a kiss assing punishment they got. For what use it was, they just as well sent them on a holiday to Disneyland
Petition get law changed now!!!! How dare they do this absolutely disgusting and evil. Get there parents loosing benifits sanctions and let there rights took away so they cannot learn to drive a car until 5 years after crime committed
Such low lifes will never be any good, they will have a future of
Crime and will all end up serving time and having Porridge when they
are older.
They should be moved off the Island.
I have never been very good at maths but even I can work out £1500×6 doesn’t equal £200,000
‘We don’t want to see you here again after smashing up someone’s home, causing hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage, showing absolutely no respect to either the owners or the law, but be assured if we do, then we will be forced to give you another bleeding heart leftie social worker order for 12 more months and another risible fine that we know you won’t pay’ – after such a horrific crime, these feral monsters will now be emboldened in the knowledge they can do anything they like to whoever they like and the consequences they will suffer from the justice system for their actions are precisely zero
The only reason they are are so called showing any ‘regret and remorse’ is because they got caught.
What would there parents & family think if ‘Kid’ broke in there houses and smashed it up with hammers etc.
Try living in the property rather than leave it empty for months, more 2nd homes and holiday lets need the same treatment
What gives you the right to tell people how to spend their money.
Yes indeed why weren’t the gate’s shut ? Why wasn’t the gardener keeping a closer eye ? Why no alarms ? Teenage kids have always been into smashing up derelict buildings look at the 2nd world war sorry I forgot you lot have never been kids have you ?,,,
You’re as thick as the ones that did it. Too stupid to understand that holiday lets bring much needed cash to the Island, not to mention employment for locals.
so many little angels commenting, never did anything wrong when you were kids?
wind your necks in
Difference between doing wrong and this. You must have been right delinquent.
Name and shame the parents if the kids are not old enouh to name.
Definitely name them
They have committed an offence, so they should be named and shamed no matter what age they are, the courts these days are too soft, and their so called sentence should be to clean up the mess at the house that they have damaged, that was someone’s home. Take their precious belongings away and smash them, see how they like it.
What a joke so the little shits and their families have basically got away with it, just like I said they would. They have to pay £9,000 in total woopy do. So let me see – that still leaves £191,000 to come from somewhere hmmm !!
I’d bet £1000 that at least half of these little brats will go on to commit more crime as they age. All the courts did is send out the message to other kids that they can pretty much do what they like. We need more imaginative sentences. They should all have got a £33,333 life long order to repay, garnishing any benefits or wages in the future. Their parents need a wake-up call too.
Because they are scum they will never understand nor care about the severity of what they have done. Maybe if someone did the same to their homes they might. We can but hope!
What a joke £1500 fine each for £200,000 damage the little s**ts are laughing at the face of justice, should be £29,000 each and there parents should pay it, they are responsible for them while they living under there roof.
Great message sent out to our wannabe thug community. You’ll get away with it. Thanks.
We all knew that the sentence would be laughable when the story of the damage first broke. Our magistrates and/or judges are not fit for purpose and should be replaced immediately. They are only making crime on the island worse by handing down pathetic sentences. Shame on them.
Bloody useless Magistrates need a swift kick up the backside, if they think for one moment they have done their duty. They should have sent them to Crown Court for Sentencing.
I don’t know the intricasies of the legal system but do know that magistrates generally have fewer powers and penalties than Judges.
Surely this should have been referred to a higher court which could have at least imposed a long evenings, weekends and holidays curfew on them.
If they’re not legally resposible for an adult court let their parents deal with that sort of behaviour in their own home.
Too young to be named for legal reasons. What a load of codswallop. Name and shame. Every other country names perpetrators regardless of age . They need to be held responsible and held accountable for their actions. They will walk away laughing. The legal system is this country seriously needs to start changing or maybe its way too late now.
Why did they do it…….
They knew it was someone’s home…
What would there parents say if other kids came into there house and trashed it…
I don’t expect they would notice, because that’s how their house looks, just a load of Sh1t.
This must have been some personal vendetta to the persons that own this property. It’s unbelievable kids of those ages could do such damage. Maybe the recent washing up of drugs on shore might have something to do with this? Shocked to read this story.
The owners should take the parents of the kids to court to claim the money back, i would
Does the Judges even understand what a sentence is anymore. What a joke. They have got off virtually scot free with a “telling off”. Ridiculous.
Our Justice system seems to have failed. weak sentaces over many decades have produced a group in society that think they are immune from responsibility for themselves – and now their offspring. Luckily it would appear that these numbsculles are in the minority and that the very large proportion of us remain hardworking and conscietiouse although I fear sentances of this nature are undermining those values. We need a thorough shake-up throughout all levels of society to bring back good, sound values of how to behave and interact with each other. If you don’t support society then you go without.
More than just a random act of vandalism, I think.
There’s something personal in that.