Daily Mail
August 28, 2014
A schoolboy who terrorised pensioners and disabled people as he walked home from school has been given as Asbo.
Police described Maruf Yousaf, 16, as ‘cocky with a poor attitude; a bully and a wannabe gangster’, and said he threatened and robbed his victims, mocking their age or disabilities, often while still in his school uniform.
Yousaf, of Brierfield, Lancashire, was named by Lancashire Police officers after he was handed a two-year antisocial behaviour order (Asbo) at Burnley Magistrates’ Court.
The court heard how Yousaf’s victims, often vulnerable through age or disability, would call police to say he had targeted them, swearing at them, assaulting them, jostling them or robbing them.
Some reported having their windows smashed after they stood up to the baby-faced teenager, whom police have named.
Over a six-month period, Yousaf was also involved in shoplifting, breaking into cars and hitting shoppers in his hometown, magistrates heard.
Citing Yousaf’s ‘increasing levels of anti-social behaviour, hate crime, criminal damage and robbery’, police and Pendle Council began proceedings against the teenager which resulted in him being given an Asbo last Thursday.
Now the teenager, who attended Colne Primet High School, has been ordered to stay out of the town centre unless he is with his mother.
He also cannot associate with four other youths, Shakeel Hussain, Hassan Ahmed, Fayzal Anwar and Qadir Ahmed, other than for ‘educational or religious purposes’, and faces jail if he does not comply with the order.
PC Karen Isherwood of Lancashire Police said: ‘His typical behaviour was that he would identify someone who was vulnerable, like the elderly or disabled, and he would be abusive and cause damage.
‘He would make them feel intimated, and make them feel more vulnerable and frightened to be out on the streets.’
‘He was making people’s lives a misery.’
She said ‘a lot of work had been to address his behaviour’, and said that he was attending school but committing the offences after school hours.