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Rochdale Observer, 6 March 1974

Jealousy Motive Of
'Clockwork Orange Attack'

A teenage jealousy led to a Rochdale schoolboy being lured to spare ground where he was beaten with chains and hit on the head by a bottle, magistrates heard yesterday. Two boys, both aged fifteen, were put under supervision for two years by Rochdale Juvenile Court, and a third boy, also fifteen, was remanded to the care of the local authority for twenty-one days until he can be placed in a remand home.
The boy's mother told magistrates his behaviour at home was terrible.
She added:"He thinks nothing of hitting me or the other children. I can't cope with him any more.
I have an awful time when he is in the house and I am glad when he is out. He has also hit his grandma who is an old woman." The father of one boy said he had not noticed the vicious streak in his son before, and the father of the other boy said he could not understand this "Clockwork Orange-type of thing".
All three boys admitted wounding a boy, who, said Inspector Frank Jones, prosecuting, had left home with a friend to go to a dance.
They were met from the bus by the three youths who chatted with them.
Suddenly, the three boys pulled out metal chains and started to hit the boy on the head and body.
He tried to run away but one of the boys picked up a glass bottle and hurled it at his bead. He was wounded by the bottle which broke on impact.
His friend tried to intervene and he was also attacked with the chains.
One of the attackers told police that the boy they had first attacked had been going out with a girl his friend wanted to go out with. The attack had been planned.

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