It is a sad reflection on modern society that a 14-year-old boy has to be given an Asbo.

Youngsters of that age should be absorbing themselves in school work and enjoying a host of leisure activities in their spare time, not engaging in antisocial and criminal behaviour.

Nicholas Hendon is clearly a boy who has lacked direction in his early life and is out of control. He has an appalling record for a boy of that age.

Police describe him as a ringleader of gangs of teenage tearaways causing problems in Bicester.

Now the chief troublemaker has paid the penalty, with heavy fines and severe restrictions on his movements - and rightly so.

He needs to learn quickly that a life of crime is no life at all. At present, he's a young yob on the path to prison.