BLOODLUST OF THE TINY TORTURERS; BROTHERS FROM HELL GUILTY.

TWO torturers aged just 10 and 11 yesterday admitted beating, stabbing, burning and sexually degrading two young boys in an orgy of violence.

The attackers, who are brothers, will be sentenced later and could be locked up for life. The case brought back horrific memories of the murder of James Bulger in 1993.

The baby-faced thugs left their older victim for dead, half-naked and partly submerged in a water-filled ravine.

Hetold them: "Leave me. I can't see. Leave me to die."

The other lad, who had been burned on the EYELIDS with cigarettes, was found wandering the streets by a group of girls. He was bleeding so badly that onlookers thought someone had thrown a tin of red paint over him.

The brothers, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been charged with attempted murder but pleaded guilty to the lesser crime of grievous bodily harm.

They sat surrounded by social workers and showed little emotion as their gruesome crimes were described. The older boy, now aged 12, yawned several times.

The brothers met their victims,who were aged 11 and nine, at a park in Edlington,near Doncaster, Yorkshire onSaturday, April 4. They were in foster care in the former mining village after a nightmare upbringing with a mother who fed them cannabis to keep them quiet.

The brothers lured the boys to a patch of waste ground called the Brick Ponds by promising to show them dead toads and foxes, then ordered them to hand over their trainers, a mobile phone and pounds 5 pocket money.

The two lads refused and the brothers went berserk. They lashed out with bricks and sticks, repeatedly stamped on their victims and threw them down the side of a ravine.

One brother picked up a broken old kitchen sink and dropped it on the 11-year-old's head.

A noose was placed around the boy's neck. He had ligature marks when he was found.

The nine-year-old, the nephew of the older victim, told police that the brothers stamped on his face and genitals, forced him to eat nettles and threatened to strangle him.

One of his tormentors tore a branch off a tree and thrust the sharp end into his arm, ripping it open to the bone. Lit cigarettes were pushed into the wound.

The nine-year-old was also burned with cigarettes on his eyelids and ears. Both boys had cigarette burns.

The brothers told the younger boy to "go away and kill yourself", and he was so terrified that he tried to convince them he was obeying them by ramming a stick down his own throat.

The two attackers amused themselves by forcing their victims to perform a sex act together.

When they finally got bored with their victims, they decided to go and visit their father, who lived nearby.

One brother told the other they could not leave without killing the boys because they would be able to identify them to police. But they eventually wandered off.

The younger boy staggered away from the Brick Ponds towards the village, where the girls found him.

A man who lived locally took him into his home. The boy was covered with blood from head to toe.

Locals began a frantic search for the other victim, who was found unconscious in the ravine with a gaping wound to the back of his head.

An air ambulance rushed to the scene. Paramedics took more than an hour to stabilise the boy before he was flown to an intensive care unit.

He had so many cuts and bruises on his body that his dad said he looked like Freddy Krueger.

The brothers were found with their dad. Police had already been looking for them - they were supposed to report to the police station that day to be interviewed about an attack on another 11-year-old a week before.

At Sheffield Crown Court yesterday, both brothers pleded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

Prosecutors agreed to drop the attempted murder charges to spare the victims "having to relive in court the shocking events of their ordeal".

They pointed out that the maximum sentence for GBH was the same as for attempted murder - life.

The brothers also admitted robbing their victims of a phone and cash, and two counts of causing a child to engage in sexual activity.

And they further admitted charges of causing actual bodily harm to the other youngster they attacked. They were cleared of GBH on the boy.

The brothers will be sentenced later, probably in early November, after reports have been prepared.

The older of the two, dressed in a black shirt and tie, spoke confidently as he answered the charges.

His younger brother was more hesitant and seemed to struggle to follow the proceedings. At one point, his barrister asked for a pause so he could explain something to his client.

The brothers were allowed to sit at the lawyers' table rather than in the dock, and had social workers on hand to look after them.

The judge and lawyers did not wear wigs or gowns.

Judge Mr Justice Keith told the brothers: "This is clearly very strange for you. I can tell you it is pretty strange for us lawyers to have boys your age in acourt like this."

Later, the mother of the older victim said: "We're pleased they did plead guilty, and now we're just waiting to see what happens in November. We just want to get on with it now."

The mum said the boys' families were not upset that the charges had been reduced.

The Crown Prosecution Service had explained the decision to them, and they were happy that the boys would not have to go through a trial.

She added that the boys were "fine" and recovering well.

The father of the older boy said he wanted the brothers to be hanged.

He added: "They tried to kill my son. They were trying to kill both of them. It was premeditated.

"Things are getting better bit by bit.

It's a very slow process.

"You sometimes see bits of our lad's old self come back but I don't think he'll ever get back to the way he was.

"He'll be mentally scarred for life.

We all will, but we didn't go through what he's been through."

Echoes of Bulger hell

JAMES BULGER was abducted on February 12, 1993, after he wandered away from his mum Denise in a shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside.

Security camera footage showed him being led away by two boys who looked about 10.

Two days later,James's mutilated body was found on a railway line in nearby Walton.

He had been attacked with bricks, stones and a piece of metal. His body was then placed on the railway track and was cut in two by a train.

Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both 10, were charged with James's murder on February 22 and found guilty at Preston Crown Court later in the year.

The judge sentenced them to be detained at Her Majesty's Pleasure and recommended that they be kept in custody for"very, very many years to come".

But both killers were freed on life licence in June 2001 after serving just eight years.

Thompson and Venables were given new identities to protect them from reprisals, and the press were banned from reporting anything about their new lives.

KIDS RAISED ON DIET OF CANNABIS AND VIOLENCE

THE brothers endured a grim childhood in a squalid, chaotic home with a cannabissmoking mother who "doesn't give a s***". The mum laced their tea with cannabis to send them to sleep so she wouldn't have to look after them.

And the boys were left to grow up wild, staying up all night, watching gruesome horror films when they were as young as six, and even setting their own bedroom wardrobes on fire.

Hard-working neighbours of the family on a Doncaster council estate suffered for years at the hands of the mother, her drunken, violent partner and her seven sons.

A relative of the family said: "The two boys could have been lovable, given the right family. But you just knew that one day they would really hurt someone."

The brothers' house, with its wrecked car and broken fridge in the front garden, was notorious on the estate.

Asign outside said: "Beware of the kids." The police were on the doorstep as often as three times a week.

Aneighbour said the mum smoked cannabis constantly, and added: "I think that's why she doesn't give a s***".

Locals said the woman's partner, who lived in the house, was a "violent drunk". One described the man's daily routine as "drink, drink, drink, kick off, beat the kids, drink, drink, drink".

The brothers were often seen scavenging for food and clothes.

Alocal teenager said: "Their fingernails were always black. Their shoes were too big for them. They used to scavenge trainers and tracky bottoms from skips."

Both boys were known for random violence. One of them had been arrested for beating a girl of 11 with a baseball bat.

The older brother had been in court four times for violence. and was given a 12-month supervision order for battery in January.

The younger of the pair had committed actual bodily harm and assault. He was facing two charges of assault and one of burglary at the time of the Edlington horror.

Some locals believe the boys committed crimes to get their mum's attention. Both were on the child protection register and had been expelled from school.

Police said the brothers were a "cancer" in the neighbourhood. Locals had seen a member of their family picking up ducklings in the local park and killing them by hurling them against trees.

The family left the estate on the day of the brothers' first court appearance over Edlington. Locals shouted abuse as they were driven away by social workers.

Critics were last night asking why the brothers were put in foster care in Edlington rather than secure accommodation. And fingers were being pointed at Doncaster's child protection department, which has a reputation as one of the worst in the UK.

Inquiries have been ordered into seven child deaths in the area in the last five years, and a team from Westminster was sent to take over the department a month before the Edlington attack.

CAPTION(S):

ABDUCTED: Little James SEARCH: Cop at crime scene KIDDIES IN COURT: Brothers had small army of social workers to support them. LEFT: Diagram shows where their victims were found