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Boy, 11, confined to his own street Aneeze Williamson is not yet a teenager but he was confirmed yesterday as one of the most heavily-restricted people in Britain, outside the country's prisons. After a two-month trial period, magistrates agreed that the 11-year-old tearaway, who cannot read or write and has been excluded from every school he has attended, should continue to be barred from his local town centre and every road but his own on three large housing estates. Standing under 5ft but already a criminal veteran, with 13 convictions on top of 10 offences when he was under 10 and could not be charged, Aneeze must stay indoors between 7pm and 8am unless accompanied by a legal guardian or social worker. He has to follow a specified, escorted route to and from his home to Bradford or anywhere else outside the restrictions. The Draconian anti-social behaviour order (Asbo) also specifies that one exception to the limits — occasional visits to his granny on a neighbouring street — must be accompanied by his mother, grandparents or one of four uncles. This is a relaxation of the trial period's conditions, which allowed only his mother as escort; but another attempt at widening his punitive horizons failed. The bench in Bingley, West Yorkshire, ruled that he would not be allowed to play out with other children in West Royd Close on the West Royd estate in Shipley, near Bradford. They agreed with solicitor Justin Crossley, prosecuting on behalf of Shipley Community Housing Trust, that even that would risk a return of Aneeze's reign of terror — part arson, part thieving and part racist abuse. “This isn't your typical 11-year-old boy and you must have regard for his behaviour up to this date,” said Mr Crossley, after defending solicitor Nigel Leadbeater appealed to the court to remember Aneeze's age. The boy himself sat toying with his baseball cap, listening but saying only “No” when the chairman of the bench, Martin Nolan, asked him if he wanted to comment. He also promised to abide by the Asbo conditions, and the court was told that the two months' confinement by invisible but real barriers appeared to have had an effect. After years of threatening elderly and ethnic minority neighbours, Aneeze had quietened down and accepted that he needed to change, according to his family. The youngest person to receive an Asbo in Yorkshire, and one of the youngest in the country, he had also been shocked by national hate-mail sent to his home. Wide publicity over his court appearance in October, when the “virtual prison” was imposed, caused the sort of reaction which his frightened victims on Windhill had seldom managed. “The day after the court case we started getting all these letters which said all these disgusting things about Aneeze and calling him scum and things,” said his mother Debbie, 36, who lives with the boy and his sister, 17, and seven-year-old brother. Aneeze's father left soon after he was born. “I was really upset. I cracked up,” she said. “The letters came from all over the country for about two weeks after the court case. But I think this could be a fresh start for him.” Aneeze's uncle Marc Boocock said after yesterday's hearing: “He's not the terror he's made out to be. We know he can be a little so-and-so but we've had no trouble with him at all and he's followed the order up until now.” Ms Williamson said that the changes to the Asbo would help the family, along with the chance that Aneeze will get a place at a special boarding school in Cumbria. She said: “We never had a problem with Asbos in general and we knew Aneeze needed to have one. But it was complicated and difficult to understand. At least now we know exactly where we stand. “He's going to have a much better life if we can get him off the estate and out of trouble. I'll be able to get a job and everyone benefits.”Mr Crossley said the housing trust and Bradford council were content with a two year term — the minimum for an Asbo — because of Aneeze's age and evidence that the interim order had had an effect. But he said the child had previously breached an acceptable behaviour contract and ignored written warnings to his mother. “The people who reside on the West Royd Estate are entitled to have some peace,” he said.
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