Sponsored by
Targets of brothers' hate tell of Jekyll and Hyde characters
PEOPLE who had contact with the brothers responsible for the horrific attack on two young boys in Edlington, near Doncaster, have spoken of their "Jekyll and Hyde" characters.
Two years before the pair subjected a nine-year-old and an 11-year-old boy to a series of sickening physical and sexual assaults by a wooded ravine in the former mining village, they tried to blow up a caf in a different area of Doncaster, it was revealed yesterday.
Joy Silcock, who owns the caf in Sandall Park, said she began to know the youngest boy after he visited frequently to get bread to feed the ducks.
She said: "He was really polite, almost sweet, but I couldn't work out why he wasn't at school like all the other kids.
"When I asked him he said he'd not been going for a long time, and he was having to do his work at home.
"I thought he must have been expelled, but I didn't take it any further."
Things turned ugly, however, when the 10-year-old asked Ms Silcock for a cigarette.
She said: "I'm dead against children smoking so I just said, 'No, you can't'.
"It was like somebody had turned a switch. He just flipped totally. It was like Jekyll and Hyde.
"He went red in the face and was swearing like a trooper, shouting 'witch, cow, slag.'
"He was swearing at me as he rode off on his bike."
The boy and his brother, aged 11, then returned to the caf a few days later after it closed for the afternoon.
Ms Silcock, a 56-year-old grandmother, said: "They came back and built a bonfire next to the pipe feeding gas into the building.
"They'd piled up a load of rubbish onto a plastic milk crate by the back door, and the fire was going quite well when an old couple happened to see what was going on.
"If they hadn't spotted it so quickly and raised the alarm then the whole place would have gone up."
The fire caused 5,000 worth of smoke damage to the kitchen.
Ms Silcock added: "We spoke to the police about the boys,
and actually told them, 'They're going to end up killing someone' but nothing happened .
"We thought it was them the moment we heard about the attack. It wasn't a surprise when we found out for sure the next day.
"I know all about kids being mischievous, but these two aren't mischievous, they're just completely out of control and evil."
The younger of the two brothers also began terrorising diabetic angler Melvin Gleadall, 56, after befriending him at the same park. Mr Gleadall said: "I thought he seemed like a nice lad to begin with. He used to come to the lake most days and chat about fishing.
"He just seemed genuinely curious about how big the fish were and how I went about catching them."
But the boy's behaviour began to run out of control as the days went by, Mr Gleadall said.
He said: "He'd been friendly and polite, but then his attitude just changed completely almost overnight.
"He'd turn up with some of his mates, and they'd surround me swearing and cursing and taking the mickey.
"They knew that I couldn't defend myself and that's why they picked on me rather than anybody else.
"One day he threw my tackle into the lake and ran off laughing, saying that I couldn't catch him.
"I've always loved fishing. It's my one and only hobby, but things were so bad that I was scared to go to the lake.
"That boy completely ruined it for me."
Mr Gleadall added that the boy then began targeting his home.
He said: "He started causing all kinds of trouble at the house, throwing stones with his mates and smashing the front windows.
"Ordinary, decent people need protecting from the likes of him and his brother."
'Their discipline arbitrary, violent'
Former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith, who has established the Centre for Social Justice, said he was appalled by the attacks and repeated calls for early intervention.
It emerged yesterday that their mother's partner was a violent drunk.
He said: "There is discipline and discipline. The sort of discipline these kids have received is arbitrary and often incredibly violent.
"So it is not that they didn't have discipline, it is the discipline was completely pointless. In their case – it was just simply a case of just savaging them."
Email to a friend
Print this page- Three-inch blanket of snow heading our way today
- Alan Shearer in list of favourites for Leeds and England jobs: Latest odds
- Barnsley’s Keith Hill invokes Fawlty Towers over link with Leeds job
- McCormack feels United search can be narrowed down
- Redfearn throws down gauntlet as queue builds at Elland Road
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Yorkshire
Friday 10 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -9 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: -2 C to -1 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South
