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A 12-year-old is put on trial for killing his stepfather in this heartbreaking BBC drama about a hideous absurdity at the heart of British law
It is possible that you are not in the best place to deal with more bad news about Britain and its enduring commitment to moral failure. But we get not only the leaders, but also the television we deserve. Responsible Child (BBC Two) is a drama built around one extraordinary fact – that, in England and Wales, children as young as 10 can be tried for murder as if they were adults. Think for a moment of any 10-year-olds you know and imagine them in crown court being assumed to have the capacity of a grown man or woman. In fact, 7,057 of their pre-pubescent peers have been through exactly that since 1995. That is the year, incidentally, that the UN pointed out that having such a young age of criminal responsibility was incompatible with the UK’s obligations, as part of said UN, on children’s rights.
Responsible Child was written by Sean Buckley (who penned Skins) and directed by the documentary-maker Nick Holt, in his first foray into drama. It draws from a variety of cases, but is perhaps most directly based on the 2014 case of Jerome Ellis, aged 14, and his 23-year-old brother, Joshua, who stabbed their abusive stepfather to death as he lay on the family sofa. Continue reading...