Edlington boy torturers granted anonymity

The brothers moved to Edlington just three weeks before the attack to live with foster parents

Two brothers who tortured two other children in South Yorkshire have been granted lifelong anonymity.

The boys, then aged 10 and 11, lured their victims to a ravine and carried out a "sadistic" attack in Edlington, near Doncaster, in 2009.

They were sentenced to five years' detention in 2010 and granted anonymity until the age of 18.

The High Court has now given them lifelong anonymity on the grounds they would be "at serious risk of attack".

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Sir Geoffrey Vos - who heard the brothers have new identities and are now both in their late teens - said he was satisfied the anonymity order was in the public interest.

He said he would outline his reasoning in writing at a later date.

The attack happened near the Doncaster village of Edlington

The brothers, who admitted causing grievous bodily harm, were released earlier this year after a decision by the Parole Board, but lawyers sought an injunction to extend their anonymity as one of the boys approached his 18th birthday.

It was claimed that to identify them would breach various sections of the Human Rights Act.

Anonymity places them alongside only four other individuals who have lifelong protection of new identities:

• Mary Bell, who was given a new identity after she convicted of murdering two young boys when she was 11

• Jamie Bulger's killers Robert Thompson and Jon Venables

• Maxine Carr, who was convicted of conspiring to pervert the course of justice over the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

The brothers' victims, aged nine and 11, were throttled, hit with bricks, made to eat nettles, stripped and forced to sexually abuse each other in the attack.

A sink was dropped on the older boy's head, and the younger boy had a sharp stick rammed into his arm and cigarettes pushed into the wound.

Parts of the attack were recorded on a mobile phone.

The boys were initially granted anonymity until they were 18

The brothers moved to Edlington just three weeks before the attack to live with foster parents.

Sentencing them at Sheffield Crown Court in 2010, Mr Justice Keith said they had committed the "prolonged, sadistic" crimes for no other reason than they got "a real kick out of hurting and humiliating" their victims.