Boss cleared of abduction

Cleared: Linda Lindsay, centre, with Leigh Docwra and Melvin Lindsay

A garden centre owner has been cleared of child abduction charges for making three boys do 90 minutes' work as punishment for trespassing.

The boys, aged 12 and 13 at the time, were set to work clearing a stream and other manual tasks after they were found hiding on the site, Plymouth Crown Court heard.

Linda Lindsay, 54, her son Melvin Lindsay, 35, and nephew Leigh Docwra, 29, were cleared of child abduction and common assault.

The Lindsays, both of Milford Lane, Plymouth, and Mr Docwra, of Beaumaris Road, Plymouth, denied all the charges.

I would do exactly the same again Linda Lindsay

Judge Francis Gilbert bound over the three to keep the peace for 12 months in the sum of £250.

He told them: "I emphasise that you leave the court with your character intact."

Mrs Lindsay earlier told the court that the schoolboys agreed to carry out tasks after they were found hiding behind vehicles on the nursery's private property.

She said one of the boys produced a cassette tape which he admitted taking from a vehicle.

Gangs of children

It was then that they were given their tasks.

"They said they would rather do that than have the police called," Mrs Lindsay told the court.

Before the children left to go home Mrs Lindsay showed them CCTV footage and had photographs taken of them at the nursery so she could identify them if they trespassed again.

Llewellyn Sellick, prosecuting, told the jury the children were held against their will and had been "manhandled".

Mrs Lindsay, a mother of four, said after the case: "I would do exactly the same again, but I would call the police. We weren't heavy handed at all."

She said she had been "dumbfounded" when police arrested her one week after the incident and initially charged her with false imprisonment.

Mrs Lindsay said her actions came after a string of problems involving gangs of children trespassing and stealing.

One of the boys' mothers said after the case that she was "disgusted" with the outcome, adding: "I just don't believe it."