AT the very moment that counsel Antony Braithwaite was on his feet in the High Court in London trying to persuade the Lord Chief Justice that The Northern Echo was conducting a witch-hunt against Shaun McKerry - "Homing Pigeon Boy" - the juvenile himself was at home in County Durham perpetrating the worst offence so far in his depressingly long criminal career.

On February 7, at midday, wearing a mask he burst into Leeholme post office waving a golf club about his head and shouting threats. With an accomplice who had a knife, he made off with £3,500.

At the same time, the Lord Chief Justice was being told that The Northern Echo was wrong to name the 16-year-old boy who, with his gang, was responsible for about 1,000 crimes which terrorised his community around Coundon.

Yesterday, Mr Braithwaite made an application to Judge Denis Orde, who was hearing the post office robbery case at Durham Crown Court, for McKerry's anonymity to again be maintained. Sensibly, like the Lord Chief Justice, Mr Orde allowed us to inform the people of South Durham that it is indeed McKerry who is responsible for the damage to their community.

Mr Orde also passed a four-year sentence on McKerry - a long stretch for one so young. The people of the Coundon area will no doubt be breathing a sigh of relief that, at the earliest, it is two years before he can be parolled and three years before he can be released on licence.

Yet it is to be hoped that this time the young offenders institution will have some beneficial effect on McKerry.

For him to have amassed such an appalling record in his 16 years, our social, educational and judicial programmes have clearly failed both him and the community they serve. Indeed, we understand that the last time he was released from a young offenders institution, he returned home with a heroin problem. This, when added to his physical and mental troubles, can only have exacerbated his tendency to offend.

This time, he must be given all the counselling, education and treatment that he requires. Because this time, even if he serves his full four years, he will still be only 20 when he is released. Unless he can be helped to overcome his addiction of crime, he will be left with a lifetime ahead of him in which to continue to terrorise his community.