Police are hunting a group of children who tied a seven-year-old boy to a tree with a rope.
Bradley McLachlan had the rope wrapped around his body, including his neck, during the incident at Bransbury Park, Portsmouth, Hampshire, at about midday on July 28.
It is understood that three boys, all around the same age, were involved in the incident which police are treating as an assault.
The youngster was able to free himself and was taken home by another boy.
He was checked over at hospital but was able to return to play that afternoon.
His mother Charleen, 30, from Portsmouth, told The Portsmouth News: "I feel sick and shocked someone could do this, not least other children. This wasn't just a game that went wrong, it's far more serious. I can't get my head around it. There were marks under his chin and they went right up around the back of his head."
Detective Sergeant Fiona Holland, of Hampshire police, said: "I am appealing for anyone with any information about this incident to come forward.
"We are still investigating the circumstances of the incident. We need to speak to the children involved to ensure they understand the possible consequences of the incident and ensure whilst they are out playing during the summer holidays they are also staying safe.
"The boys were unknown to the victim and we would like to appeal for information to help us identify these children.
"We would also like to speak to the boy who helped the victim from the tree. This boy had no involvement in the incident, but may have seen something that could assist the inquiry."
Discuss...
It's made me angry, so when i calm down, I'll post my view.
Last edited by B-S-F : 24-08-2009 at 12:34 PM.
"People have abused you lots in the past? Why do you then abuse yourself more?" - Quote
Sometimes I feel like I'm alone, Sometimes I feel like I'm not that strong, Sometimes I feel nothing at all, Sometimes I feel vulnerable, Sometimes I feel a little fragile
Erm I was tied up with rope during childhood games as were other's of my friends. Obviously they went a bit too far if he had marks. But I don't think the tieing up in itself is that bad a thing, it's something kids do, has no one else ever played peter pan with tiger lily tied up, or knights rescueing bound-up maidens from a dragon? I'd be interested to know just how serious his marks were because to me it just sounds like a game that got a bit out of hand and that the police are over-reacting a bit by treating it as an assault.
The boys were unknown to the victim and we would like to appeal for information to help us identify these children.
I have been tied up too, but not by people I didnt know.
"People have abused you lots in the past? Why do you then abuse yourself more?" - Quote
Sometimes I feel like I'm alone, Sometimes I feel like I'm not that strong, Sometimes I feel nothing at all, Sometimes I feel vulnerable, Sometimes I feel a little fragile
^ wont be me. but it is always possible, as is influence from tv and films.
its also possible that they might have just hatched a plan as kids do, not realising the consequences for their actions. i remember being in primary school and my friend had a little falling out with a couple of boys in the class. the two boys had planned to follow her home after school and strip her naked in the woods. it was totally innocent in the sense that they were just wanting to get back at her for whatever they fell out about, there was no sexual aspect to it or anything, to them it was just like soaking someone with a water bomb or pinching a toy. i was afraid for her so i told them it was illegal and the police would come get them - i thought it was a blind lie at the time but now i know they would have come for them and there would have been public outrage at what the boys had done.
my point is, they may not have full understood the severity of their actions.
"When I want your opinion, I'll beat it out of you" - Dr Samuel Loomis
^ wont be me. but it is always possible, as is influence from tv and films.
its also possible that they might have just hatched a plan as kids do, not realising the consequences for their actions. i remember being in primary school and my friend had a little falling out with a couple of boys in the class. the two boys had planned to follow her home after school and strip her naked in the woods. it was totally innocent in the sense that they were just wanting to get back at her for whatever they fell out about, there was no sexual aspect to it or anything, to them it was just like soaking someone with a water bomb or pinching a toy. i was afraid for her so i told them it was illegal and the police would come get them - i thought it was a blind lie at the time but now i know they would have come for them and there would have been public outrage at what the boys had done. my point is, they may not have full understood the severity of their actions.
^^ i always have a problem with this argument...you yourself knew this was a 'wrong thing' to do (what the kids intended to do to your friend).
There are so many instances of young kids beating/abusing and even killing other kids, im talking young kids here....sorry, but how many ppl here can honestly say they might have hit someone with a hammer, tied up another ,unknown, child, especially around their neck, and 'not known what could happen'?!?!
there was also a recent instance of kids, i believe in the age range of 8-9 who set another child on fire...you cant say they didnt know how severe it might have been.
Not having a go...i guess mostly wondering where they get these ideas from? Myself and most kids i knew would never had done things like this...so why is there such an increase in it??
Also, the cases of young teenagers, usually its been younger girls(13-14) with older boyfriends, who kill their families/parents?
This is really scary....every kid gets mad/feels they are treated unfairly by their parents etc..but they dont kill them...
I dont know...
*rambles*
no i understand, i also have the same thoughts. i think back to when i was whatever age and how i knew what was right and what was wrong, what would hurt and cause pain etc. in the case of my friend in primary school, i told the boys that as i had put myself in her shoes and thought about how scary it would be. im just not sure about if other kids of the same age would have thought quite the same as me, the boys seemed genuinely shocked when i told them it was wrong.
that was about 17 years ago now though, i think things are changing now. i dont know what is happening to kids. and i know that sounds so clique but it is getting worse when children are setting each other on fire, tying complete strangers to trees, killing other children or even their own families. obviously its not a new thing, children have been committing atrocities for as long as we have been around no doubt, but i definitely think its on the increase.
"When I want your opinion, I'll beat it out of you" - Dr Samuel Loomis
^^ i always have a problem with this argument...you yourself knew this was a 'wrong thing' to do (what the kids intended to do to your friend).
There are so many instances of young kids beating/abusing and even killing other kids, im talking young kids here....sorry, but how many ppl here can honestly say they might have hit someone with a hammer, tied up another ,unknown, child, especially around their neck, and 'not known what could happen'?!?!
there was also a recent instance of kids, i believe in the age range of 8-9 who set another child on fire...you cant say they didnt know how severe it might have been.
Not having a go...i guess mostly wondering where they get these ideas from? Myself and most kids i knew would never had done things like this...so why is there such an increase in it??
Also, the cases of young teenagers, usually its been younger girls(13-14) with older boyfriends, who kill their families/parents?
This is really scary....every kid gets mad/feels they are treated unfairly by their parents etc..but they dont kill them...
I dont know...
*rambles*
Firstly, I don't think that there actually is any rise in this sort of violence; it goes reported (to police & media) more, as people find it more out-of-order, but it wasn't uncommon up to 50 years ago, either, from reports&experiences I've read. But it goes reported more, there are so many more newspapers and news channels, stories like this that were previously unreported are getting reported more. It's not a rise in the action, it's just a rise in the awareness.
But also - a lot of children don't understand the severity of death. Try talking to a 5-yr-old about death, as I had to watch my friend doing recently, and they just don't understand - it's out of their awareness and comprehension. They continue asking questions - "what, they won't be back ever? What about when I'm older? Can I go and see them wherever they are?" etc. - and forever is a concept also lost on a lot of younger children, too :P
Children don't understand the long-term implications of their actions; that's an accepted theory at the time. So, they won't think that if it looks stormy, they should take a coat out - you've got to remind them of a past time when it was wet and they didn't take a coat out, to stimulate that sort-of active-thinking response. But, they don't accept, yus, the long-term effects of their damage, it's just out of their comprehension again - 'this action leads to this response, which leads to this consequence' is just not a trail of thought that children follow or understand, not until much later, anyway.
And there are also boundaries that can be crossed; if you are used to tying up your friends to play role-play, what's wrong with tying up a stranger? You just need to look at children playing to see how easily they make friends with complete strangers, they just sit and start talking, and five minutes later, they're best of friends. Why not continue your game with another person who you've met?
and and and! (Sorry for this exceedingly long post :P) children can be taught 'right and wrong', but often need to see it in context, or to hear the reasoning behind it. It's not good enough to simply say 'don't do that!' when they have a hand near a hot flame, putting reasoning in it makes the child aware of why it's bad, why it shouldn't be done - and then, it'd expand the child's association of behaviour and result, too :P
Older children shouldn't be excused, children who are concious of what they're doing and the impact of it - but younger children simply don't have the comprehension to understand the consequences.
Ugh. Stupid children. Children aren't as ignorant as they use to be. Violence is all over the place, movies... news... most children have been exposed to violence and it's consequences in some form or another at that age.
I think tieing a kid up that you don't know is a bit different then tieing a kid up for a game. And leaving the kid there as well... that doesn't sound like an out of hand game. It sounds like some really **** little f*ckers. >.<
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
I think tieing a kid up that you don't know is a bit different then tieing a kid up for a game. And leaving the kid there as well... that doesn't sound like an out of hand game. It sounds like some really **** little f*ckers. >.<
Yes, but none of us know what had gone on. We're assuming that they're playing a game, or being little ****ers as you said - but we don't know. We're assuming that the child wasn't known to these kids, because that's what the article said. The article isn't very long, and we're assuming all sorts of things without really any background knowledge. It doesn't instantly mean, though, that this are little ruffians with no respect for anybody.
And please, gosh, will people stop with 'what is the world coming to!'. I've got enough of that with my grandparents, and actually, the world is in a far better place now that in ever was before - as somebody posted in another thread, volunteering in young people is higher than it was before, charities are getting more sponsorship than ever before, most violence has actually gone down in recent years - the world isn't going to the dogs.
Very little goes on now that hasn't ever gone on before. It's reported more, but that certainly doesn't mean that it's any worse than it was. That's silly. Also, a lot more gets reported - things that thirty years ago were considered 'childhood fun' are now being reported as bullying or abuse, which is a very good thing for all involved, but it does mean that the statistics imply that there is more going on, when actually it has always been there, it's just now being reported as such.
It's just such a narrow view to think that the world is somehow going downhill, there's absolutely nothing to support that.
I wasn't saying that the world has gone downhill. I was just saying that kids are more exposed to violence then they use to be. Also stats on violence don't include young children becasue under 10 year olds can't be charged (at least in Aus).
And children and young people are different. A few years back (I'm not sure if it was here or the UK) a man was going to jump off a high rise car park. A crowd formed and youth were calling out and egging him on! The police were trying to talk him down, which didn't work. He jumped. And most people know what happens when that happens. The young people weren't shocked. They were trying to take photos on their phones!
The generation of today is desensitised to violence. *shrugs*
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
Ok, I work with children who are 7, Ive seen children act in violent and unsafe ways, you defuse the situation and talk to them about the consequences of their actions and MOST of them have no idea about the consequences of actions. If you tell them its wrong to tie a child to a tree most 7 year olds will take in that information but if it came to the situation itself a lot of 7 year olds wouldnt be able to process that what theyre doing is the same as what you told them about.
The fact that these kids didnt know each other makes no difference either, kids that age will play with other kids regardless of whether they know they or not. If youve ever taken a 7 year old to the park, chances are they will play with children they dont know. I doubt that these children did this on purpose with malicious intentions and although children are exposed more to violence etc I dont personally believe that at that age that they would do this with malicious intent.
Also where the rope was tied isnt really an arguement that i feel can be brought to them as a lot of 7 year olds are unaware that you can be seriously injured by that. Basically i dont think theyre the evil hooligans theyre being made out to be.
There are times to stay put, and what you want will come to you.
But there are times to go out into the world and find such a thing for yourself.
I aint no abacus but you can count on me.
I wasn't saying that the world has gone downhill. I was just saying that kids are more exposed to violence then they use to be. Also stats on violence don't include young children becasue under 10 year olds can't be charged (at least in Aus).
And children and young people are different. A few years back (I'm not sure if it was here or the UK) a man was going to jump off a high rise car park. A crowd formed and youth were calling out and egging him on! The police were trying to talk him down, which didn't work. He jumped. And most people know what happens when that happens. The young people weren't shocked. They were trying to take photos on their phones!
The generation of today is desensitised to violence. *shrugs*
Sorry Jess, I didn't mean to imply that you were one of the people with that point - it was just a point that kept on cropping up, that I just disagreed with :)
Also - that's not an uncommon psychological situation, that gang behaviour when suicides are at risk. We studied it in psychology, and it really isn't an uncommon, nor is it new. People become involved in group violence, which leads to egging. People are also aware that in a group, they aren't 'people', they are part of a group, and so are willing to do things more violent or aggressive than they perhaps would've done before.
There are studies going back to the 1940s to suggest that this is the case.
i thnk children have so much freedom these days to watch unsuitable programs and films along with allowed to play violent games. parents oftern talk about things in front of the kids that we would never have heard... also many children are allowed out in the street to play from younger ages and see older kids do certain things which they want to try.
ultimatly though, i honestly believe that the kids dont realise the seriousness of what they are doing - they think its "funny' and just a "laugh"
i htink the parents need to sit down calmly and explain the rights and wrongs etc. also aprents need to behave as adults an set an example. my dad was always using anger towards me and when i went to school anger was how i tried to communicate and that turned into me being acused of bullying...to me that was the way things worked
the part that strikes me is where the marks were, one slip whilst freeing himself.... could have been a lot different. if someone (of any age) tied you to a tree, enough to leave marks around your neck... i think you'd be pretty angry.
mand x
Mand, South Wales, Full-time working, single mother to 2 scarily independent girls.
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