Terror gang members are spared prison term

Two members of a gang that terrorised a Wolverhampton neighbourhood in a campaign of violence and harassment were spared custody - despite persistent offending.

A third got a four month detention order but this runs alongside an existing sentence, meaning he is free in two months.

Adam Jenks, aged 18, Ryan White and Patrick Thornton, both 17, breached Asbos by meeting in Low Hill, despite being told not to by a judge.

Recorder David Herbert said he had to balance persistent breaches with not causing nuisance or distress.

Mr Nigel Stelling, prosecuting, told Wolverhampton Crown Court the gang was told not to associate with each other as they got Asbos in 2008.

Police in Leacroft Avenue on July 4 last year saw the three and other youths at a bus stop together, he said.

Jenks and Thornton breached Asbos four times, and White, serving six months in a detention centre, seven.

Maturity

Mr Robert Parry, for Jenks, said he was seeking work. Mr David Bratt, for Thornton, said: "He has started to show a new degree of maturity."

Ms Paula Bignall, for White, said his attitude to the Asbo and society had improved. They were part of the Low Hill Youth gang and faced more than 100 allegations, including throwing fireworks, brandishing knives and firing a gun through a window.

Jenks, of Leacroft Avenue, got a 12 month community and supervision order and must do 40 hours unpaid work. Thornton, of Old Fallings Crescent, Low Hill, got a 12 month supervision order and White four months detention concurrent with his sentence.

They admitted the breach.

By Laura Stuart-Cook