Violence shame of drunken children

One in every three cautions handed out for boozed-fuelled bad behaviour in Greater Manchester is to a child under 15, worrying figures have revealed.

Thirty people across the region were given a caution for drunk and disorderly charges - of which a staggering nine were children aged 10 to 15.

A further eight children under 15 were prosecuted in courts across the region in 2006 - compared with six the previous year, according to figures released in parliament.

Despite the apparent problem with drinking among children, the figures suggest Greater Manchester adults are being more sensible. The number of prosecutions, cautions and on the spot fines given out to both men and women has fallen year on year.

But nationally, the number of women aged 16-25 issued with penalty notices for drunken disorder almost doubled from 1,853 in 2004 to 3,561 in 2006.

Only seven shops and pubs or clubs received maximum fines of £1,000 for selling to under 18s during the same year. And, since new laws were introduced in 2003, just two people have been prosecuted for selling alcohol to a drunken person, though only one of those was convicted.

The Government is considering putting health warnings on alcohol, banning happy hours, and stopping supermarkets selling cheap drink to tackle Britain’s spiralling booze problem.

But the Conservatives, who uncovered the figures, seized on them as proof of Britain’s “broken society”.

They pledged to reverse 24-hour drinking and ban loss-leader sales of alcohol to prevent the sale of cut-prize booze.

Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve said: “This is very disturbing research. The fact that the number of young women receiving penalty notices for drunk and disorderly has doubled is an alarming symptom of our broken society.”

In England, almost 1.6 million men and one million women are considered “high risk” drinkers.