Offender

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If you are 10 years old, you can't drink legally, smoke, choose, marry or even buy a pet. You are in the year five or six in elementary school. You are legally a child.

But they can be brought before a court as an adult for murder.

This is because in England and Wales, 10 the minimum age for criminal legal responsibility, this means a 10-year-old accused of killing someone can be tried as an adult in a Crown Court before a jury instead of in the.

A will be based on your young age, including their first name is used, can not bear the lawyers with wigs, and dresses, and seats were close to their lawyer or Appropriate Adult .

But a child that young understand what it means to commit murder? You are responsible for your actions? And what happens to them later in Life , when you condemn, as an adult, before you become a teenager?

These questions are the focus of the 12-year-old Ray 's story is told in the new BBC drama Responsible child - loosely based on a real case.

Ray , who loves to play Video Games to learn about space and watch reality shows, is On Trial alongside His Big Brother , Nathan, 21 - for a brutal murder.

After her abusive step-father just prison for the attack on Nathan with an axe and escapes, he returns to the crowded family home and begins to abuse her mother. One night, The Brothers go to the bottom and stinging him More Than 60 times, while he sleeps on the sofa.

an attack is so frenzied you almost cut His head off.

The story is based on Jerome and Joshua Ellis, who were 14 and 23, if you killed your step-father.

Ray " step-dad Scott (Shaun Dingwall ) attacks His older Brother with an ax The drama shows The Killing in its full horror: The Blood , the knife, which is actually your step-dad, unarmed, and sleeping.

But there is also a 12-year-old Ray - sensitively played by White Princess star Billy Barratt, who is also a 12 - dazed, confused and covered in blood after it happens. He confesses to His crime almost immediately and taken to The Local police station.

There he is, and His mug shot, DNA and blood taken sought before he is locked in a dark, adult cell. If His attorney asks The Police why a child how Ray was treated like an adult criminal, the COP snaps: "He was not tails in prison for murder. "

'Pure evil', the minimum age of Criminal Responsibility at 10 in England and Wales in the year 1963.

Since 1995, it is estimated that More Than 7,000 kids between the ages of 10-14 years, was to Crown Courts in England and Wales.

The United Nations has repeatedly said that the setting in this age, ignores the rights of The Child , and called for the age to be raised to at least 12. Ten is lower than in any other European country: in Sweden there are 15 and in Portugal it is 16. Also in China and North Korea , you have to be 14 to be tried as an adult.

Our understanding of how the adolescent brain develops and how that affects the decision-making - has been since the age limit originally set, a recent report by the government.

And in 2010, a poll commissioned by The Prison Reform Trust of More Than 2,000 adults suggested that two-thirds of the increase in the age limit of Criminal Responsibility that is at least 12.

contradict But other passionately.

It is possible that you are against the raising of the age limit due to the horrific murder of two year old James Bulger by 10-year-old Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, in 1993. A granular in the small, small child, carried away by the two older boys, and kidnapped him from a supermarket is to forget something that only a few people can have seen it.

It was A Crime that shocked The Nation , leading to headlines labelling The Child killer "pure evil" and a heated debate about whether or not your violent behavior was influenced by horror movies such as Child's Play 3, which played a killer doll.

James Bulger's mother Denise Fergus, has expressed limit in The Past against raising the age. In 2010, the then children's Commissioner made a personal apology to her after this in a newspaper article, the age of responsibility be raised should.

'are you actually the defendants'Responsible child, the working of Skins writer Sean Buckley and documentary filmmaker catches up with Nick.

Nick hopes His first drama film shines a spotlight on these issues.

He made His name working on dark documentaries such as Channel 4 's The murder trial followed the case of a Scottish fruit and vegetable seller who murdered His wife. It was while working that 2013 will be re-triggered His interest in the age of Criminal Responsibility .

Nick Holt (left), directed by Billy Barratt, who plays Ray and James Tarpey (Nathan) "I was sitting in Scotland for about 18 months, in different cases, and that's when I saw a very young child in a courtroom during a severe attack, test version. I asked the lawyer, whether The Child was there as A Witness , and you said: "no, they are actually the defendants'. I was surprised.

"After that, I started to ask more questions about the age at which people can stand trial before a jury for The Most serious crimes. If it turned out, it was 10, and I saw how it is compared to other countries, I was surprised even more. It is clearly out-of-kilter with the rest of The World . "

"He can't buy a hamster'In Responsible child, The Prosecution hangs on the idea that Ray is a cold-blooded killer, to go to who deserves it for murder. But the defense argues that Ray 's Life difficult - His father drinks, His mother should be a depression, the violence and the fact that His case was overlooked by social services to be taken into account when considering His sentence.

It is a contradictory story: The Sheer horror of the murder is on full display. But the turbulence of Ray 's home Life and His complete devotion to His older Brother that their step-dad-attacks in front of him.

Although there is no indication that Ray or any other child, the perpetrator should not be punished for their crimes, the drama asks, what should be the punishment, and what are the long-term effects of the treatment of children as criminals.

Some of The Most thought-provoking lines of a psychiatrist character to come from a child, played by Stephen Campbell Moore, is assigned to Ray 's case. He wonders if the brain of a child is fully able to understand what it means to commit murder.

"Ray is not even allowed to buy a bloody hamster, until he is 16," he says, and refers to the fact that the British law does not, you can buy a pet up to this age.

Ray is a lawyer, played by Games of Thrones star Michelle Fairley (left) Dr. Tim Bateman , a youth-justice expert, told Radio 1 Newsbeat that there are discrepancies in how The Law treats Young People .

"Recently, there has been talk of raising The School leaving age of 18. It seems to me, the Time Is right, the time in which we are labelling children start out as criminals. "

Director Nick would like to see the age of responsibility to 16 increase: "On the reading and the research I have done, that a better age is out, because the brain of an adolescent develops a bit more. "

'I don't want the person,'says The impact of the James Bulger case, may partially explain why Labour and Conservative governments have not covered, the age that children can be tried as an adult, Dr. Bateman.

"If you have a consensus on something, tough on crime, then it is difficult for the parties to Do Something , what could be seen as soft. "

However, thinks that The Public mood might be altered: "It is a big change in the society is concerned with children law in the last ten years. "

He refers to the fact that there is a 75% decline in The Number of in that time. And in Scotland, the decision was made recently.

Responsible child, the last scenes are embedded in a secure unit for young offenders "I think there is enough distance between the now and the Bulger case for us to say that everything that we thought should be at this time does not bind us," says Dr. Bateman, even though he is aware of, some might still not agree with this view.

In the last scenes of the drama Ray , which begins now in a secure unit for young offenders, in the night-soaked flashbacks of the murder, terror and blood. He also talks about the fact "the person, which is what I did".

Responsible child on Bbc Two on 16. December, at 21:00.

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Source of news: bbc.com