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25/04/2013
Teen Wins Case Against Police Treatment Of 17-Year-Olds
The policy of treating 17-year-olds in police custody as adults and not children, has been successfully challenged at the High Court by a teenager.
Hughes Cousins-Chang, now 18, brought the case to the High Court. He had kept in custody for 12 hours and strip-searched before being released on police bail.
It also follows the deaths of two 17-year-olds who killed themselves after getting into trouble with police.
The High Court ruled the policy was "incompatible" with human rights law. Under-17s are given greater protection.
In his ruling on Thursday, Lord Justice Moses, sitting with Mr Justice Kenneth Parker, said:
"I conclude that it is inconsistent with the rights of the claimant and his mother, enshrined in Article 8 (of the European Convention on Human Rights) for the secretary of state to treat 17-year-olds as adults when in detention."
To do so "disregards the definition" of a child in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the "preponderance of legislation affecting children and justice", the judge said.
(H/CD)
Hughes Cousins-Chang, now 18, brought the case to the High Court. He had kept in custody for 12 hours and strip-searched before being released on police bail.
It also follows the deaths of two 17-year-olds who killed themselves after getting into trouble with police.
The High Court ruled the policy was "incompatible" with human rights law. Under-17s are given greater protection.
In his ruling on Thursday, Lord Justice Moses, sitting with Mr Justice Kenneth Parker, said:
"I conclude that it is inconsistent with the rights of the claimant and his mother, enshrined in Article 8 (of the European Convention on Human Rights) for the secretary of state to treat 17-year-olds as adults when in detention."
To do so "disregards the definition" of a child in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the "preponderance of legislation affecting children and justice", the judge said.
(H/CD)
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