Boy waged four-year campaign of terror in city

Baby-faced yob Harvey Collier had been terrorising residents on Hull’s Ings estate since he was 11.

He was part of a gang who cruelly threw a melon at a woman they called ‘Melon Head’, and tormented another woman whose pet had gone missing by “miaowing” outside her house.

Police hoped his behaviour would improve when he moved from the estate into the city centre six months ago, but it got worse to the point where he became “out of control”.

Now the schoolboy has been handed an anti-social behaviour order banning him from most of East Hull.

Community support officer Danielle Calvert, from the East Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “He caused us problems for nearly four years on a daily basis, committing a number and variety of offences across the whole of the estate. He was out of control.

“He has committed a variety of offences, including shop thefts, criminal damage and assaults.”

She added: “We had a lot of residents complaining about his behaviour and we needed to resolve the situation.”

Hull Magistrates’ Court heard how Collier has been involved in 24 reported crimes and disturbances between March and August this year.

In March he was identified as being part of a gang which attacked a boy in an alleyway between Bilton Grange and Ark Royal Estate, hitting him around the back and legs with broken fence posts and punching him in the mouth.

The victim suffered bruising to the back and a swollen knee.

Collier also threw estate agents’ boards at passing traffic from the roof of a Cooperative store with a gang of other youngsters.

Several of the offences took place at an Asda supermarket, where Collier was part of a gang of between 15 and 20 youths, who have thrown footballs at the windows and pushed each other into freezers.

When he was confronted by a security guard during a disturbance in June, Collier threw a bike at him.

A statement supplied to the court described how he and others tormented a woman after her cat went missing.

It said: “She put posters up displaying a picture of her cat and her mobile number.

“A group of youths were congregating outside her house making cat noises and laughing, which is intimidating to the female.

“This continued for a number of weeks. They also returned and began phoning the number, laughing and being abusive about the cat.”

Collier, now 15, was identified by police after the woman took a photograph of him and handed it to police.

“Officers now hope the order – and the threat of jail if he breaches it – will be enough to change Collier’s behaviour.

Ms Calvert said: “When he moved off the estate and into the city centre, we believed his behaviour would change.

“However, he carried on returning to the estate and caused us even more problems than he had originally.

“We have tried everything with him, but he seems to think he is indestructible.

“He has been dealt with through the triage system, restorative justice, he has been arrested, but still thinks he can get away with everything.”

She added: “Hopefully, this order will put a spanner in the works and be the deterrent that he needs.”

Anyone who sees Collier breaching the anti-social behaviour order can call Humberside Police on 101.