Boys were 'not particularly shaken' after the horror they had inflicted

THE senior investigating officer Det Supt Mick Mason, who took over at the scene after Sgt Vernon left, painted a disturbing picture of how the two young attackers reacted when they were tracked down and interviewed.

Also speaking as he returned to the scene, Mr Mason said: "They gave a quite clear account of their versions of what took place on that day. They were not particularly shaken by the events, which took us by surprise.

"We were expecting a lot more trauma from the two offenders. But they were quite clear about what they had done and they gave an account. I think they understood what they had done. Whether the gravity sunk in then, I don't know. Whether it has sunk in with them since, I don't know.

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"From what I am told they didn't show any remorse during interview."

Mr Mason said the two victims had been making a "slow and steady recovery".

He added: "One of the victims had some quite significant physical injuries and they took quite a few months to heal. Psychologically, obviously it has got to have an impact on you, but they have received a lot of support in relation to getting back to some normality, and I think that now the court case is over that will clearly help.

"They did experience problems and needed support to get them back into mainstream schooling, which is obviously a priority, but you can't go through an incident like this, which is so traumatic and not be affected.

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"Its been a very difficult case to deal with, I have children and when you see what happened on that day and you go to see these boys and you meet them, then yes, it's going to affect everybody."

Violence was the norm at home

Chartered psychologist Dr Jane McCartney said violence and neglect at home was key in explaining the young boys' extreme actions.

She said the pair would have "egged each other on" and targeted the victims because they had the opportunity, rather than from any pre-meditation.

"In cases such as these, it often starts with biting and kicking from a young age and might go on to torturing a cat, for example.

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"A lot of this behaviour they exhibited would have been behaviour they had seen and probably experienced.

"We can't say this is purely cyclical – that if you are abused you become an abuser – but if that is your norm that is what you get conditioned to."

The fact that the brothers had watched violent films and pornography would also have played a part, she said.