The identity of all three children is quite rightly (IMO) protected

However the information we DO have states

"They lived just a few doors apart.
Their estate, made up mostly of semis and low-rise flats in the shadow of Heathrow Airport, is certainly not an inner-city hell hole.

And although the two 10 year old boys and the 8 year old girl at the centre of the story are from broken homes, there was nothing in their background to suggest what might happen on October 27 last year.

Regular playmates, they met that day around lunchtime.
There was no school because it was half term.

Boy A and Boy B were often left unsupervised outside. The girl, however, was not supposed to go out of earshot of her mother without permission. On this occasion, she broke the rule."

All three children gave different scenarios of what happened

However there were no injuries to the girl's genital area and no forensic evidence linking the boys to the girl or to her clothing, which was examined for DNA.

One of the boys is described as struggling academically.
"He was at a special school for children with a range of behavioural problems, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorders. The youngster had been expelled from his last school; he wasn't a bad kid, they said, just disruptive."

The other boy was described in a statement to the court by his teacher
'He is not a bully nor has he ever displayed bullying tendencies towards other children. He has never exhibited sexual behaviour towards other chilcalldren, members of the teaching staff or anybody else. He has never exhibited any behaviour that has caused me any concern.'

The jury was told that both accused boys - even Boy 'B' whose mother it was claimed could be aggressive and foul-mouthed and possibly a drug user, were of 'good character'.

The debate about whether the trial should have gone to The Old Bailey - the Central Criminal Court in England which deals with major criminal cases from Greater London and, in exceptional cases, from other parts of England - rather than being more effectively dealt with by Children's panels, as happens elsewhere in the UK, is still being debated

Accusing the English of an 'addiction to juvenile punishment' the former Director of Public Prosecutions, Sir Ken Macdonald, questioned the decision to put the boys on trial atall.

Writing in the Times newspaper, he said: 'We've been witnessing a spectacle that has no place in an intelligent society.
Very young children do not belong in adult criminal court, they rarely belong in criminal courts at all.'