Teens behaving badly: The young tearaways in the dock for committing serious crimes

Manchester's courts often see teenagers and young people in the dock for a variety of serious crimes. From robbery to antisocial behaviour and knife crime, judges have had to hand out tough sentences to some of our region's youngsters.

The age of criminal responsibility in the UK is 10, and children under 18 can be brought before the Crown Court for serious crimes, including murder.

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The Manchester Evening News’ court reporters regularly cover cases involving teenagers brought before the court - here are some recent examples.

Brodie Stott

Brodie Stott had been a law-abiding citizen until he moved in with his 42-year-old father Anthony Stott. Over a two-year period - and under his dad’s impression, the then 17-year-old started by collecting drug debts from addicts, before he then sent out group texts marketing their illicit products, then peddled crack on the streets from a car.

Both were arrested after police raided a lock-up and their shared property and found packages of cocaine and cannabis, four mobile phones and more than £4,000 in cash. Police claimed Stott Snr had also been in possession of a loaded firearm whilst his son carried a retractable baton as part of his drug debt collections activities.

Text messages between them referred to high purity cocaine as 'raw power' and cannabis as 'bud' or 'cali', with Stott Jnr sending out a group text to addicts saying: '''Shout me for cali - its the cheapest your gonna get.''

At Minshull Street Crown Court in April, Stott Jnr, now 20, was jailed for three years after admitting possession of drugs with intent to supply being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs