A children's charity has criticised a court decision to impose an anti-social behaviour order (ASBO) on an 11-year-old boy.

Lukon Straker, from Wolverhampton, was banned for four years from nearly 80 streets in his home city after a six-month reign of terror.

Police and the council compiled a dossier of Straker's behaviour, which has seen him terrorise residents of the Low Hill area with his abusive behaviour and threats of violence.

The order states he must not enter any of the named streets within the Low Hill area. A breach of the order can result in five years' imprisonment.

But Pam Hibbert, principal policy officer specialising in youth justice for Barnardo's, said there were more effective ways of dealing with anti-social behaviour.

Sympathy

She said the ASBOs, which are civil orders, posed the danger of criminalising the child.

Ms Hibbert said there were usually reasons behind the sort of behaviour that might land a child with such an order.

The force have used it sparingly but effectively in the past DCI Kevin Bullas

She told BBC Breakfast: "Merely banning him from certain areas is not going to address that behaviour.

"I have every sympathy with residents who are subject to that sort of harassment but we would argue this boy is part of their community as well and they need to look at solutions that are within their own community.

"Merely moving the problem is not going to help that boy and in the long run we would argue it is not going to help the community."

Mrs Hibbert said addressing possible problems at school or at home would be better than an order which lasted four years - which at the age of 11 was likely to seem much longer and act as a disincentive to changing his behaviour.

Sparing use

There have been some suggestions police do not have enough resources to monitor the numbers of ASBOs.

But local police said the order sent a positive message from the courts to show that anti-social behaviour would not be accepted in Wolverhampton.

Detective Chief Inspector Kevin Bullas, of West Midlands police, welcomed the magistrates' decision and said resources to monitor such orders would not be a problem.

"The force have used it sparingly but effectively in the past," he said.

He said the key was to use the order after other measures had been tried, such as work with youth offending teams, and local education services.