An 11-year-old looter, the youngest arrested during the recent London riots, was sentenced Wednesday to 18 months of youth rehabilitation, according to media reports.
The boy was convicted of looting a garbage can worth around $75 from a storefront window that was smashed during the riots, said the Daily Telegraph newspaper. On Aug. 8, rioters broke the windows to the storefront and police spotted the boy trying to take the garbage can shortly after.
“My view is that the offense is a very serious one. If you were a little older you would be ending up in prison, you would be looked after there rather than elsewhere,” district Judge John Woollard said, according to the newspaper.
Woollard said that he also considered the large-scale riots that hit London when handing down the sentence to the boy, who due to his age, cannot be named.
Five days before the incident, the boy was handed a 10-month referral on arson and for carrying a bladed weapon.
When he was apprehended by police officials for taking the garbage can, he said he “was just taking it from someone else,” reports The Guardian newspaper.
