Bid for anti-social order on tearaway

The boy, who cannot be named, is the first person in Prime Minister Tony Blair's County Durham constituency of Sedgefield to be the subject of such an application.

Darlington magistrates heard evidence yesterday from a number of people giving details of allegations about the boy's activities.

PC Alan Thompson, of Newton Aycliffe police, told how he had been bitten on the arm by the teenager when arresting him last December.

He said he had been walking past a bus stop in the town when he heard the boy grunting and making donkey noises towards him.

PC Thompson said the boy, who lives at Ferryhill, denied it had been him.

He said: "At that point he squared up to me and clenched his fists, and then spat down towards my feet, just missing my boots."

The officer arrested the boy for a breach of the peace, then said he became violent.

PC Thompson added: "I had to place him on the floor face down and attempted to handcuff him - he had become that violent.

"He started to kick out and thrash out with his hands and his head - he was just basically out of control.

"As he was face down and I was on top of him, he turned his head to the left and bit me on my lower left arm."

The boy was arrested for assaulting a police officer. He later pleaded guilty to the offence at Sedgefield Youth Court, but denied spitting or swearing, and claimed the police officer had overreacted.

The court also heard from a witness who said she had seen the boy throw a coping stone from her garden wall at a moving car in Ferryhill, narrowly missing a mother and her child.

She said: "It missed the car, but there was a young woman with a pushchair stood right beside where the car had been.

"There were bits flying all over, and the mother took off. I don't know who she was or if the baby was hurt, but I was absolutely horrified."

Another witness described how the boy had constantly taunted, threatened and abused her and her family after falling out with her son.

The hearing continues