A school trip to a jail that was intended to teach children how to avoid a life of crime ended with one of them in court on an assault charge.
The well-intentioned trip went quickly wrong when a sudden prison ‘lockdown’ led to the group of youths having to remain in the chapel for 90 minutes after they arrived while the premises was put on high alert. Some students started verbally abusing staff in the chapel before the fracas erupted in the prison car park. One boy, 15, punched another, 14, leaving him concussed, bleeding, and with an ‘egg-sized’ lump on his head, a youth court in Llandudno, north Wales, heard in March 2015.
Prosecutor Julie Hughes said: "A support worker tried to protect the victim but a blow connected very forcefully with the boy’s face.”
Defence solicitor Andrew Hutchinson said: “Some staff were sickened by what they saw happening to the victim.”
Miss Hughes added: “They will think twice before volunteering to take the defendant on any form of school trip in the future.”
The court heard that the students, who all have known behavioural problems, were taken to the jail after a constable from north Wales suggested the idea.
A boy of 15 admitted the assault and was sentenced to nine months' youth rehabilitation.
