The sentencing of a twelve-year-old rioter in Britain has been postponed because his mother has flown to Ibiza on holiday.
The boy appeared before a judge in a Manchester youth court for his involvement in the unrest that erupted across the UK following the tragic killing of three young girls in Southport at the end of July.
Judge Joanne Hirst told the court that she was “frankly astonished” that the woman had travelled to the sun for five days, even though she knew about the date of the sentencing.
The boy was accompanied by an uncle.
The twelve-year-old admitted two charges of violent disorder.
On July 31, he and others attacked a bus in Manchester and on August 3, he tried to break the windows of a shop and threw objects at a police car.
He is facing juvenile detention.
Judge Hirst announced that she would demand an explanation from the boy’s mother and said that a serious situation had been made worse by his mother’s actions.
“Boys like you need their mums in their lives. I need your mum here,” she told the defendant.
The boy will now be sentenced on September 11.
The judge ordered that the mother must be present then.
In England, children are liable to prosecution from the age of 10.
Right-wing extremist and anti-Muslim riots in several British cities spread across the country in the days that followed the stabbing.
More than 1,000 people were arrested, including many minors.
The violence was driven by false social media claims that the British-born attacker was an asylum seeker who had recently arrived by boat.
The suspect, 18, was born in the UK to Rwandan parents. (dpa/NAN)