THE SIX BAD BOYS - LEONARD ROSS

[jstevens1]

Hi everyone!

This one is about the youngest member of the gang, Leonard Ross who was influenced by his older brother to firstly steal money from his mother and then to accompany Fred on criminal forays. Leonard was already being indoctrinated by his older brother to believe that being a gangster was cool.

By being a member of the gang and receiving divided stolen money he ended up in the Juvenile Court, despite only being 8 years old. He was not given probation but he was taken into foster care for about a year. Leonard now 9 years old is back with his mother and has not so far re-offended.

I tried to find out if the age of Criminal Responsibility was only 8 in the 1950s. If that is so, then at the tender age of 8, Leonard will be saddled with a criminal record like his older friends. Sad.

With kind regards,

Jo

[Boatbuilder]

It seems that the age of criminal responsibility was raised from 8 to 10 in 1963 (see paragraph 3 in this linked article from 2010).

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews ... urope.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[MARKTAYLORUK]

Thought it rather unfair that one of them stole the money and divided it up among the rest but they got different sentences. A 15- year -old being looked up to by his eight-year-old brother was one thing- but the others being between ten and twelve and forming the rest of the gang?

[MARKTAYLORUK]

I also.think that taking him.away from his family for a year was too harsh