Eleanor Neale

They let him take breaks whenever he needed them.

Whenever he was getting overwhelmed, he could go out for a breather.

One of the officers even walked to the shop and bought him a Ribena.

at one point.

But even though they were so nice to him, that didn't change the fact that they knew he was lying.

They knew that he was involved and they were just waiting for him to confess it.

And I think at this point as well, boy B was kind of feeling the same way.

He kind of knew the jig was up.

After hours and hours of interrogation with his mother by his side, by the way, because of his age, he had to have a parent with him at all times, he actually said to one of the officers,

Do you mind if my mum leaves the room for a second?"

He wanted to tell them something without her being there.

The officers actually said to Boy B that they couldn't do that.

Like, I mean, it was literally against the law to interview someone, a child suspect, without a parent present.

They couldn't do that.

They couldn't accommodate that.

And so police actually never found out what he wanted to tell them privately.

So, and it was on maybe day two of these interviews.

Oh, by the way, because the boys were so young, I don't think they could put them in a cell, but obviously they needed to hold them at the police station.

So they actually brought beds for them and their mothers into the offices and they like slept in a police station office.

not a cell, an office overnight.