14-year-old 'boy's home ringleader'

A 14-year-old who claimed he was held in solitary confinement at a boys' home for a month was suspected of being the ringleader of a late-night disturbance, a juvenile court heard yesterday.

The ringleader allegation was made as the teenager appeared for a seventh time - his third at Kwun Tong Court - charged with attempting to escape from the O Pui Shan Boys' Home in Lai Chi Kok on August 11.

He had been sentenced to be detained at the home indefinitely last December after being convicted of car theft while on probation.

Employees of the boys' home told the court the boy had been separated from other inmates after a disturbance. About 20 boys left their rooms in the early hours of August 6. Some broke into a staff room to search for food.

'I urged the boys to return to their beds immediately, as the regulations did not allow staff to use force to take the inmates back to their rooms,' social worker Yau Kwok-kuen said. The home's superintendent, Tsang Pui-ching, said she was horrified by the incident.

'Information at the time indicated the boy might have been acting in the role of a ringleader during the riot,' she said.