UK: Here is some good advice: if you are 13, live in Kent and like throwing snowballs, make sure there is not a police car in the way.Amy Hodges, from Ashford, may not have known this when she accidentally broke the rear window of a Kent constabulary vehicle with her snowy missile. She has paid the penalty.
She spent four hours in a cell, had her fingerprints taken, was obliged to give a DNA sample, and was given a formal reprimand when officers decided not to proceed with a charge of criminal damage.
Her mother, Theresa, who was in the cell with her, is furious. "So my daughter now has a criminal record for throwing a snowball. What is the world coming to?
"She's not a bad girl at all and certainly didn't mean to break the window - she hadn't been aiming at it, just fooling around with friends.
"The officer involved should have established who she was and then contacted us. We would have paid for the damage and punished her ourselves. All this fuss for a snowball? It defies belief. Have they nothing better to do?"
But the Kent police spokesman was unrepentant. "A 13-year-old girl was arrested after a snowball was thrown at a moving car, smashing the rear window," he said.
"We consider this to be a dangerous action which could have had very serious consequences. We chose to reprimand the girl at the police station rather than charging her with criminal damage.
"We felt this was an appropriate way to deal with this incident."
He then put in the metaphorical size 12 police boot. "This might be a nice girl from a fine upstanding family but she broke the law and committed criminal damage. The law is for everyone and we are there to uphold it."
By David Ward posted 28 February 05
