A SENIOR police officer's fears that prolific young criminal Dean English would go on to kill someone were tragically borne out by the death of Ian Gourley.

Chief Inspector Tim Wilson, the divisional commander for the Easington area of County Durham, made the prophecy, saying it was his "greatest fear", while speaking on the BBC documentary Here and Now, on persistent juvenile offenders, in 1996.

By then, English had acquired the tag The Singing Defective by frustrated officers in Peterlee.

It was earned by his practice of singing: "No reply, no reply, no reply", to the tune of the football chant: "Here We Go, Here We Go, Here We Go", when interviewed about his crimes.

Chief Insp Wilson described English as a callous, cold-hearted criminal, who knew exactly what he was doing and cared nothing for his victims, including many elderly householders in Peterlee, or for law and order in general.

He said: "When we have him in for questioning his sheer arrogance beggars belief.

"Seasoned officers have to put up with him singing: 'No reply, No reply, No reply,' across the desk at them at the top of his voice when they are trying to ask him about serious crimes.

"If he's in a particularly good mood, he sometimes admits his crimes, but on other occasions there is no talking to him.

"The lad is more cunning, wicked and deceitful than men three times his age. He's a menace and should be behind bars.

"He's an evil, callous, arrogant, teenage tearaway.

"He has a total disregard for all authority. Sometimes, during an interview, he will talk to you and other times he will sit and sing or stare out of the window.

"He does not care - he just laughs about it.

"And we can do nothing. We have got to go back to his victims and tell them he has been released to continue his crimes."

A change in the law meant police were unable to hold him in juvenile detention until the age of 15, leaving detectives admitting there was little they could do to prevent his solo crime wave.

English apparently vowed he would quit crime when he reached 15, but in a local radio interview he said the prospect of prison did not upset him.

He told the interviewer: "I'll just gan to jail, I'm not bothered.

"I reckon jail will just be like a holiday camp. I'll just lie in my cell all day smoking dope."

He may now have his wish, for after six previous terms in young offenders' institution, English has been in custody since his arrest while answering bail on November 28, last year, following police investigations into the death of Ian Gourley nine days earlier.

When sentenced on November 8, by which time he will be 23, it will be his first sentence served in an adult prison.

Staggering record of a one-man crimewave

A persistent offender since he was ten, Dean English was arrested 72 times in four years before the age of 15.

He was blamed for ten per cent of crime in Peterlee by the age of 13.

Police were frustrated by the 1991 Criminal Justice Act, which lifted the minimum age of juvenile detention from 14 to 15.

His first conviction was in June 1993, at the age of 11, at Seaham Juvenile Court, for burglary with intent to steal from a house.

He went on to receive numerous supervision orders, but in January 1997 he received his first custodial sentence, 18 months in a young offenders' institution, imposed at Peterlee Youth Court, for burglary and theft.

Two months were added by the court in early 1998 for shoplifting and burglary.

Subsequent sentences included:

* Six months' in a young offenders' institution for burglary and breach of licence, at Teesside Crown Court, in September 1998

* Three months' consecutive to the above sentence, for driving offences, including taking without consent, at Teesdale and Wear Valley Magistrates' Court, in February 1999

* Fifteen months in a young offenders' institution for burglary and theft, at Teesside Crown Court, in October 1999

* Fifteen months, with 12-months' consecutive added, in a young offenders' institution, for burglary, theft and handling stolen goods, at Teesside Crown Court, in 2001.

* His catalogue of crime includes 45 offences of theft and burglary, three offences against the person, 12 for attempting to escape custody and breaching court orders, one drug offence and 11 other miscellaneous offences.