A TEENAGER who kept two boys captive and locked them in the boot of a car was asserting his power and humiliating them, a court was told.

He also forced them to kneel on a metal bed frame and forced one of them to have his head shaved, magistrates said.

But allegations that he had put a vacuum cleaner on their genitals and switched it on; that he had brandished a meat cleaver while threatening to cut their tongues out; and had hit them with a knuckle duster, were not proven beyond reasonable doubt, they said.

The 16-year-old, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had pleaded guilty to false imprisonment after an incident at his Blackburn home in May last year.

He will be sentenced at Blackburn Magistrates' Court next month.

The case was first heard at Preston Crown Court, but was referred back to magistrates at Hyndburn to decide the facts of the case.

The accused, who was 15 at the time of the incident, said the boys, aged 11 and 14 and also from Blackburn, had been at his house and they had all been having a laugh.

He told the court the boys had made up the story because they were afraid of what their mothers might say about having their hair cut, he told the court.

Louise Whaites, prosecuting, said the older boy -- 6ft tall and 13 stone at the time --- had been asserting his power over the other boys and humiliating them. The only thing in dispute was the sequence of events, she told the court.

"The suggestion of the defence that this imprisonment and what took place at the house was simply some kind of jolly jape, we say is absolute nonsense.

"If that's right and the boys consented to everything that took place and if they were equally involved and it was all play-fighting, playful threats, why on earth plead guilty."

But Paul Schofield, defending, said the two boys had fabricated and exaggerated parts of their evidence. One complainant had told four different versions of events while the other one had given two differing accounts, he told the court.

"It's a question of interpretation of the facts," he said.

"People do plead guilty on trial dates. There were a number of reasons. First and foremost he was guilty, and secondly he was anxious to avoid the two complainants having to give evidence."

Chairman of the bench Stan Alcock said it was a situation which had got out of hand.

"We believe both boys were coerced into kneeling on the bed and both boys spent some time involuntarily in the back of a car. While these events were happening the boys were not free to leave.

"Though other incidents may have taken place, the degree of coercion has not been proved beyond reasonable doubt.

"It was a case of four boys being unsupervised in a house for a long period of time. What began as voluntary activities got sadly out of hand."