Schoolboys taken off sex register

Judges at the High Court ruled in the boy's favour

Two schoolboys have won a legal battle to have their names taken off the sex offenders register after judges ruled their human rights had been breached.

One 15-year-old from County Durham had admitted touching girls on the bottom "playfully" at school.

A second 15-year-old, from London, confessed to putting his hand up a girl's skirt.

Both were put on the sex offenders register as a result of a system of police warnings introduced under the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act.

Final warnings

On Friday Lord Justice Latham, sitting with Mr Justice Field at the High Court, ruled there had been "no informed consent" when the boys were dealt with by the police.

Warnings are given when a young person, with a clean record, admits an offence and a police officer considers that a criminal conviction would not be in the public interest.

(The police) could have been more informative as to what the outcome would be in relation to this young man's future

Boy R's father

In both cases the police decided the boys should be given final warnings and as a result were required to register under the 1997 Sex Offenders Act.

But the High Court agreed the boys should have been made aware of this when the warnings were issued.

The court challenge centred on whether the failure to alert them before they consented to the warnings was incompatible with human rights law.

The judges declared: "In the two cases with which we are concerned, there has clearly been no informed consent, so that there has been a breach of the claimants' Article 6 rights."

Touching girls

The judges heard a number of girls made complaints against boy R in November 2001 over what they considered to be indecent assaults, and as a result he was excluded from school.

Boy R had admitted to "horseplay", such as pinging bra straps and touching the girls on the bottom playfully, which he did not consider to have any sexual connotation.

He also confessed to touching two girls on the breast area outside their jumpers.

The court heard he had lost all his friends and become suicidal after being placed on the register.

'Tough job'

Boy U had admitted putting his hand up a girl's skirt and pinching her while standing on the platform at New Cross Gate in May 2001.

He was said to understand that it was wrong.

Rather than put him through the court system, the Metropolitan Police issued the warning and referred him for registration on the Sex Offender Register.

Boy R's father told an earlier hearing that, although the boy initially regarded his misbehaviour as "horseplay", he rightly changed his attitude when interviewed by police.

He said: "The police have a tough job and have to be seen to protect the public.

"But they could have been more informative as to what the outcome would be in relation to this young man's future."