Detention for schoolboy arsonists

The two boys used waste paper to start the fire

Two 14-year-old boys who burned down their old school on Teesside in a £365,000 arson attack have been locked up.

The schoolboys, who cannot be named for legal reasons, burst into tears and clung to their weeping mothers as they were led away at Teesside Crown Court.

They admitted setting fire to Middleton St George Primary School on 26 February, by climbing onto the roof, stuffing waste paper into the eaves and setting it alight.

The 193-pupil school, which was a Grade II listed building, was closed for two months while lessons were transferred 10 miles to Firth Moor Junior School in Darlington.

The court heard the fire left both the staff and pupils traumatised.

Judge Guy Whitburn QC said he had seen film of the fire on television, and told the boys, who pleaded guilty to arson, that the lowest sentence he could pass for their "disgraceful behaviour", was two years detention.