'Councils, Not Police, Deal With Antisocial Behaviour'   27-Sep-09     Inquest into death of Fiona Pilkington and her disabled daughter hears superintendent voice frustration at justice system...   Most people do not realise that it is councils rather than the police who are primarily responsible for tackling antisocial behaviour, a senior police officer has told an inquest.  Superintendent Steve Harrod, head of criminal justice at Leicestershire police, was speaking at the inquest into the deaths of a mother and her disabled daughter who had been tormented by local youths.

Harrod said officers got "frustrated" with a judicial system which generally gives young troublemakers reprimands and behaviour orders rather than putting them through the courts. He said it could be hard for officers to tackle ever-changing gangs of children and teenagers of the sort who tormented Fiona Pilkington and her family. However, he stressed to the inquest at Loughborough town hall that such an approach had a positive benefit in that young people not put into detention were far less likely to reoffend. The dual nature of tackling nuisance behaviour following the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act, which introduced antisocial behaviour orders, was perhaps not fully understood by the public, Harrod said. Police and council officials worked in "partnership", he said, adding: "I'm not sure people do know that low-level antisocial behaviour is mainly the responsibility of the council." The policing of antisocial behaviour and abuse by young people has been a key issue at the inquest into the deaths of Pilkington, 38, and her severely disabled daughter, Francecca, 18. Their bodies were found in Pilkington's burned-out Austin Maestro in a layby close to her home in Barwell, near Hinckley in Leicestershire. The inquest has been told that Pilkington felt "under siege" for more than a decade from a gang of 16 local young people, who pelted the family home with stones, mocked and taunted Francecca, and threatened and assaulted her son, Anthony, now 19. Pilkington called the police 33 times but no one was ever charged with a criminal offence. Yesterday Harrod was asked by a juror why police were concerned at criminalising juveniles, given that if they committed a crime they "bring the criminalisation upon themselves". Harrod replied: "From a police point of view, what we want to do with any criminals is to prevent re-offending. From my personal experience, if a juvenile goes in to detention, they are likely to mix with like-minded people during their time there and they are more likely to re-offend. "I think for new police officers this is all part of their training while for older officers there is a transition. "But once you recognise that if you go to charge, and then the offenders come out of prison, you see them in the cells again and again." The only action taken against the families of youths identified as being involved came through efforts by the borough council to impose antisocial behaviour agreements and, later, civil court action threatening one set of parents with arrest and eviction. Earlier the inquest heard social services were aware Pilkington was experiencing "suicidal thoughts". Tony Howlett, service manager for people with learning disabilities at Leicestershire county council, said: "It was seen as more of a general expression of her anxieties at the bullying and harassment and not any sort of intention to commit suicide." The inquest is expected to conclude on Monday