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Ruth Dutton said James Korer, 19, should have been locked up long before the three year sentence for armed robberies on takeaway delivery drivers across north Leeds.

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Today she told the YEP: "My son should have been sent to prison a lot earlier than he was.

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"He was given rehabilitation orders where he had to see somebody weekly and if he did not go there was no punishment.

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"He's been in young offender institutions three times - in Wetherby and Newcastle - but never long enough to have any effect, just a month or six weeks.

"James was allowed to do what he wanted, he was running rings around everybody."

She believes had the courts imposed stiffer penalties earlier, they might have prevented him getting into serious crime.

Mrs Dutton said Korer went off the rails high school - she was "absolutely horrified" when he was permanently excluded for possessing cannabis.

He did not return to mainstream education but, at 13, was sent to a series of centres in Holbeck and Oakwood for excluded children and those with behavioural problems.

"Things went from bad to worse. Sometimes James would refuse to go to the centres or come home and claim teachers were offering cannabis. We felt the children rubbed each other up the wrong way," she said.
Then James started stealing from home, taking Mrs Dutton's jewellery.
She reported him, but he only given a fine. "Of course, I had to pay the fine," she said.

"Then there was a lot of petty crime, breaking into cars to steal and burglaries. He went to court 25 times in seven years," she said.

"We have done everything possible to help him. We have talked and talked and reasoned with him. We tried to get him jobs. I used to take him to the centres, but he would just walk back."

He was violent at the family home in Micklefield and caused damage and problems for his parents and younger brothers. For one offence of damage he was made a subject of a Rehabilitation Order.

Mrs Dutton added: "He was electronically tagged four times, but he used to take it off and throw it away. The security staff would come in the night searching for him. You would have expected him punished after the first breach, but it took four or five.

"I actually gave evidence to the court to get the two year Asbo on him. That finished in June," she said .

When he finally left home last summer she was "extremely worried" and found out that after staying with friends he began breaking into properties to sleep rough.

"It made me ill. We have been to hell and back with James to try to get him back on the straight and narrow.Some people who do not know what happened and blame us," she added.

"James is dangerous. He was carrying a knife, hammer and stick in the latest robberies. I am extremely worried about what he will do when he is released - just before his 21st birthday"