An 11-year-old child has become the ‘youngest person’ to be arrested over the UK riots after he was detained over disorder in Middlesbrough.
Cleveland Police confirmed it had arrested 14 people aged between 11 and 43 after it sent out 10 teams from its headquarters early on Wednesday to carry out a series of raids.
All of the arrests relate to the widespread trouble seen in Hartlepool and Middlesbrough this summer, which was some of the worst seen in recent memory.
The force had vowed to catch anyone responsible for joining in the violence earlier this month and have now arrested 110 people.
Riots across a number of towns and cities erupted following the murder of three girls in the seaside town of Southport after false messaging on social media wrongly identified the suspected killer as an Islamist migrant.
Cleveland Police confirmed it had arrested 14 people aged between 11 and 43 after it sent out 10 teams from its headquarters early on Wednesday to carry out a series of raids
Police vowed to catch anyone responsible for joining in the disorder earlier this month after strike teams carried out a series of raids on TeessideÂ
All of the arrests relate to the widespread trouble seen in Hartlepool and Middlesbrough this summer, which was some of the worst seen in recent memory
As of last week, more than 520 people have been charged in relation to the week-long disorder in towns and cities across the UK, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
Before the strike teams set out in Middlesbrough this morning, Superintendent Marc Anderson briefed them, saying: ‘I was Silver Commander on Sunday August 4 and never in my 30 years’ service have I seen anything like that in Middlesbrough.Â
‘What the community had to put up with that day was completely unacceptable.’
He warned officers to take their personal safety seriously and to secure the addresses they were raiding, given that suspects will know the courts have handed out hefty sentences for disorder.
One strike team arrested two people – a man aged 23 and his 43-year-old mother – on suspicion of violent disorder.Â
After the raids were successfully completed, Detective Chief Inspector Sarah Robinson, in charge of the operation to catch the Middlesbrough disorder suspects, said: ‘The message is ‘You haven’t got away with it’.
‘We can identify you and we will arrest you, you will be arrested and you will be put before the courts.
‘Behind every crime there is a victim and some of the stories that we have been told have been really harrowing.’
