A BLACKPOOL teenager faces an overnight curfew and ban on entering the grounds of a local school after a landmark court order last week.
The anti-social behaviour order (ASBO) against 16-year-old Sunshine Wood, of Powell Avenue, South Shore, is only the second full order nationwide, and the first in Lancashire.
Police say the restrictions, which will come into force after Wood ends a 16-month custodial sentence for threatening behaviour and various motoring offences, will have a 'profound impact' on the quality of life for people living in the area.
The case is a first because, so far, only interim ASBOs -- covering the period between a first court appearance and a later full hearing -- have been made by Lancashire's courts.
On Thursday (February 27) Blackpool magistrates granted an application by police for an ASBO prohibiting Wood from:
causing harassment, alarm or distress or inciting others to do so;
interfering with motor vehicles;
entering any car park unless accompanied by an adult over 21 with a full UK driving licence or a member of the Youth Offending Team (YOT);
driving any motor vehicle until he holds a full UK driving licence;
being conveyed in a motor vehicle unless the driver is an adult over 21 with a full UK driving licence or a member of the YOT;
going outside between 9pm and 7am;
entering the grounds of St George's High School;
communicating or associating with two other named teenage boys.
Magistrates said they considered the ASBO was necessary in view of Wood's unlawful and dangerous driving, taking of cars, fighting and threatening other people including children.
The decision was welcomed by Blackpool Police. PC Michael Keeling-Barrand, officer in Sunshine Wood's case, said: "It will have a profound impact upon the whole area. People who live there will hopefully have a much better quality of life because of this now."
He hoped the ASBO would deter others from committing anti-social behaviour, adding: "We can keep tabs on his Wood's life until he's around 20.
"If he breaches the ASBO the full weight of criminal law will come to bear on him."
A bid to impose reporting restrictions, which would have prevented the media from naming Wood or publishing details of his identity, was rejected by magistrates after representations from The Citizen.
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