Boy, 15, threatened family with baseball bat

The 15-year-old confronted a nearby family in Ravensthorpe as he believed one of them had egged his home, magistrates at Huddersfield Youth Court heard yesterday (Monday).

He shouted and swore at the family before walking back to his house and returning with a metal baseball bat, threatening to smash their windows and shouting: “Who’s going to fight me? I’ll smash you all.”

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, started swinging the bat around and appeared to charge at one member of the family, before another intervened and got in his way. The bat hit him on the arm.

The boy admitted common assault, affray and possessing an offensive weapon in a public place on June 7.

Paul Blanchard, mitigating, said there had been a history of disagreements between the two families, and that the boy was effectively the man of the house as his father was not living in the family home.

He said: “He went to speak to a member of the family who he believed to be responsible [for the egging].”

Mr Blanchard said that a member of the other family had in fact come at the boy with a cricket bat and that was why he had gone to get a baseball bat.

“Justified in his own mind, he picks something up to defend himself,” he added.

Mr Blanchard then said that the boy only struck out when a member of the family again approached him.

They then got the cricket bat out again and chased him. The boy said some of them then assaulted him.

Mr Blanchard said: “I can understand why this young man feels slightly aggrieved, but he should never have gone back with the bat in his hand.

“Since then there has been no repeat contact between the families.”

The boy, who was accompanied by his father, was given a three month referral order with £85 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.