A 12-year-old girl from Bury has pleaded guilty to a charge of violent disorder after violence broke out in Manchester city centre.
On Tuesday, October 1, prosecuting solicitor J. Deacon told Manchester Magistrates’ Court that the girl – who cannot be identified due to reporting restrictions because of her age – was of "previous good character" and had been part of violence in the city centre on August 3.
The girl was identified from CCTV footage five days later, on August 8, where she was seen as part of a wider group participating in disorder on Mosley Street, near Manchester’s Piccadilly Gardens.
Ms Deacon said: “The CCTV shows the defendant kick at a vape shop door on Mosley Street together with others, and then it has been confirmed that after kicking the door she refers to police officers as paedos.”
Footage shown to the court showed dozens of police officers on the tram tracks at Mosley Street, with a large group of people standing opposite them, as some kicked the front of a shop.
The court heard that the girl had been chanting "paedo" while looking at a police liaison officer in addition to the crowd chanting "Allah is a paedo".
The girl’s mother told District Judge Joanne Hirst that she and her daughter had previously been made homeless, with her daughter being referred to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service and having been excluded from school.
The mother said she had thought the girl was with her family, but that she had got on the tram without her knowledge.
Asked by Judge Hirst if she knew what the word "paedo" meant, the girl responded that she did not.
Judge Hirst said: “I think you do know what it means. Why did you shout it if you don’t know what it means? What were you doing there?”
The girl responded: “I was following my friends.”
Judge Hirst said: “You know the difference between right and wrong and yet you still went out and did wrong.
“You weren’t just present trying to get away, you were actively trying to damage the property of others.
“But, I don’t think you understood what you were getting involved with and the risk to you. There were quite a lot of people there getting injured.”
The case was adjourned until November 19 for a pre-sentence report to be prepared. The girl has been granted unconditional bail.
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