Kerre Woodham: Let's get tougher on young violent offenders

How does an 18-year-old with 25 convictions - 18 for violent offences - get bail? The aggravated theft for which Haiden Davis was on bail may have been nothing more than a bag snatch and a kick in the shins, as Police Commissioner Howard Broad was reported to have called it, but it wasn't the first time he'd shown himself willing to use force.

He committed the worst possible crime when he took Augustine Borrell's life in September 2007.

Although the Government wants a law to make it more difficult for criminals to get bail while awaiting trial, we can only build so many prisons. And there seems to be an unwillingness to put young people anywhere near a cell.

That shows an admirable belief in the capacity for individuals to reform, but it also betrays a head-in-the-sand attitude towards "yoof". Just as for many years the courts seemed unwilling to accept that women could be capable of the most heinous acts of violence against children, so there seems to be an unwillingness to accept that some young people are total losers. Complete wastes of space.

Look at the court cases in the past couple of years involving young killers. Women and children are not always fragile creatures, bruised by the brutal realities of life who simply need nurturing and care to make them come right.

Sometimes they can be complete scumbags who are of absolutely no use to anyone at all. It's hard to predict which kids will turn their lives around and which will go on to murder - I accept that.

But surely 25 previous convictions is a bit of a giveaway.

Or is that par for the course?