HE'S 11 years old—and terrifying. A swaggering little shoplifting, fireraising, joyriding, fighting, drinking, drug-taking nightmare doted on by his benefit-sponging parents.
Stefan Gilmore is only four feet tall—but he has a police tag around his tiny ankle.
He is tested for drugs once a week and is believed to be the youngest child in the country under an Anti-Social Behaviour Order after terrorising his local community.
Stefan started joyriding in his father's car at nine. He's been in hospital twice after overdosing on ecstasy and cocaine. He set fire to his school.
His mother and father—Lee and Ann-Marie—have reported him missing more than 240 TIMES.
He has spent at least 50 NIGHTS in police custody for crimes such as theft, burglary, mugging, fighting, drugs and drinking. And his mum caught him having sex in an alleyway.
Not exactly your average little angel. But after examining his background, should anybody be surprised?
Neither Lee, 26, nor 34-year-old Ann-Marie has ever worked. They have EIGHT children. They rake in £21,500 a year in benefits —and that's after their council house rent is paid.
If the couple tried to earn a living, they would have to make around £40,000 a year to match that after tax. But they don't bother.
Bragged
And they don't seem to be that bothered about the trouble Stefan gets into either—a fact starkly illustrated in a News of the World interview that should sicken every parent in Britain.
In a week when three yobs failed in a High Court bid to prove that publicity about their ASBOs had infringed their human rights, shaven-headed Stefan seemed quite proud of his.
He boasted of his criminal record as his mum Ann-Marie sat beside him in the three-bed council home the 10-strong family share with three dogs.
On JOYRIDING he said: "I taught myself how to drive by going downhill. I couldn't see over the steering wheel so I looked through it. I crashed the car a couple of times but I worked it out."
On DRUGS AND DRINK: "I've tried charlie (cocaine), speed (amphetamines), angel dust (horse tranquilliser) and another one beginning with A but I can't remember what it was," he boasted. At 10, he took ecstasy. "My friends said it was like sherbet but it wasn't. I was in hospital for two weeks. I drink as well. I have a few bottles of WKD (a vodka-based alco-pop). It's just like the juice we have at home."
On SHOPLIFTING: "I'd meet up with my mates and we'd go nicking stuff from shops. Clothes, laptops, mobile phones. We'd smash car windows, take the stereos and run off. We'd get about £100 a week for it and it all went on drugs."
On SEX: "I have had sex but only once. It was a contest between me and one of my friends to see who could get to someone first. I had it outside with an older girl. My mum caught us in an alleyway and shouted at her. I won the contest, though." After all this his mother blamed the POLICE. "Stefan's just a misunderstood kid," she insisted. "He's got a wild streak because we gave him too much freedom. He has gone missing so many times. He has probably spent more than 50 nights in police cells.
"I'm sick and tired of the way police treat him. There is no point in us punishing him."
And Dad agrees. "If we ground him he jumps out the window while we're asleep. If we slap him, he just laughs and runs away," said Lee.
As we talk at their home in Hastings, East Sussex, chain-smoker Ann-Marie amuses her toddlers by giving them cigarette stubs to throw away. She explained how Stefan first got into serious trouble at five when he set a toilet roll on fire at school. She and Lee put it down to an attention deficit disorder. A constant truant, he has been suspended eight times and expelled twice.
"He once set fire to the school stage because he said the headmaster was picking on him," said Ann-Marie.
"As a baby, Stefan was lovely. But at five he changed. We'd be regularly called in by his headmaster.
Gang
"Then Lee went to pick him up from school and caught a little girl smashing his head against a wall.
"We thought he was being bullied so we sent him to a specialist to see if he had a disorder. The tests were negative. We were baffled."
Now Ann-Marie—who claims £701 every fortnight in sickness benefits for her bad back—blames local gang the After Dark Crew for leading her son astray.
She said: "The older boys he hangs out with force him to do bad things—they threatened to torch our house unless he did what they said, so Stef was just protecting his family." The family are waiting to be moved to a six-bedroom house. For now Ann-Marie and Lee sleep on the sofa while their children share the bedrooms.
Stefan is approaching 12—the age when he can be detained. His only hope of staying with his family is if he sticks to the stringent rules of the two-year ASBO—including an 8pm curfew—served in August.
"I've learned my lesson and I'm sticking to the rules," he said. Police TWICE turned up during the News of the World's interview following up complaints from neighbours.
Ann-Marie said: "I agree with the ASBO to a certain extent but I don't agree that he needs to be accompanied by an adult all the time.
"He knows he only has one more chance and I know he can do it. His bad behaviour is all in the past. I'd like him to settle down and go far in life."
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