A 15-year-old boy has become the first child in the UK to be fitted with a GPS tag, allowing police to track his “anti-social” behaviour, media reports said on Sunday.
The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was handed a Criminal Behaviour Order in a landmark ruling which requires him to wear the Global Positioning System (GPS) tag for six months, The Mirror reported.
The offender must wear the electronic tag at all the times so that police can track and monitor his each and every step, the report said.
Initially, he was given a youth order but continued to offend, including threatening a 14-year-old girl with a replica firearm and brandishing a firearm in the street, it said.
A youth court delivered the judgement after the teen wreaked havoc in Oxford and Didcot in November last year, committing a string of crimes including burglary and robbery, the report said.
Fed up with his behaviour, a judge ordered the boy’s movements be monitored using a tag in April this year.
Police Constable Mike Ellis, Oxford anti-social behaviour officer, said it was the first case in the country where an under-18 had been given the punishment.
“We believe there may have been a similar order made with an adult in London but this is the first in the country with a youth. I think it will be very successful not just in this case but also in the future,” Mr. Ellis said.
“It allows us to see if he is involved in any anti-social behaviour we get reported to us. The tag allows us to see if he has been in the area where the crime took place or whether he is behaving himself. This is really to act as a deterrent to the offender as they know we will be able to see whether they were near where a crime took place,” he added.
