CLEARLY, something had to be done about the out-of-control 11-year-old boy who, for years, had been running amok in an East Lancashire neighbourhood.

But now that he has become the youngest person in the country to be served with an Anti-Social Behaviour Order, the restriction has been imposed along with a ban on the Clitheroe youngster being identified.

The decision by stipendiary magistrate Paul Firth has gone against one of the prime intentions of ASBOs -- that of naming and shaming offenders and deterring them from future bad behaviour by ensuring they are known to the public as subjects of these orders.

Mr Firth has also gone against the wishes of both the police and council who argued in court that he should be identified.

And this decision has provoked demands from Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans for him to be named on the grounds that if he is old enough to know the difference between right and wrong, he is old enough to be identified.

Mr Firth appears to have followed the view that -- as the law concerning juveniles generally maintains -- the rehabilitation of youngsters is not helped by their being named.

But the law also has a duty to protect victims and well as offenders and, in this instance, residents living near this boy have had a great deal to put up with -- bottles and mud thrown at their houses, shouting and swearing, cars being kicked and other youngsters being encouraged to smoke and drink -- all from a child who believed he could not be touched.

If this ASBO works it will be a blessing to them, and the hope is obviously that it will.

But the decision to allow the boy and his family to continue to shelter behind legally guaranteed anonymity is a wrong one.