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By Eamonn McCann
featureseditor@belfasttelegraph.co.uk

THE courts are so capricious these days, there's probably no point applying for an Anti-Social Behaviour Order against John Spellar.

But the commonsense case is compelling for warning Spellar, on pain of a barring order, not to damage children's interests.

Liberal do-gooders may argue that Spellar is a creature of an environment which he didn't himself create, that he fell in with the wrong crowd at an impressionable stage - just when his political hormones were making him mad for advancement - and that it's the society which shaped him we should be striving to change: that it's not Spellar but the causes of Spellar we should be concerned with.

This is all very well. But what about innocent advocates of children's rights, for example, encountering Spellar hanging around as they try to go about their business? Try telling them that it's not his fault, that he knows no better.

On Tuesday, Spellar sauntered into his office and signed the draft legislation which will bring ASBOs into force in Northern Ireland by the end of the month: this despite the fact that every credible body representing the sections of society most directly affected had expressed alarm at the idea and urged him to reconsider.

Personally, I suspect that the knowledge that he was thumbing his nose at local expertise made him snigger as he signed with a flourish.

Perhaps that's harsh. But sometimes, dealing with these sorts, harsh comment is called for. Of all the time-servers, has-beens, never-would-bes and assorted third raters who have passed through the NIO over the past 32 years, there is none who has so gleefully adopted the manner of a colonial administrator as the bearded nondescript from the west Midlands now lording it over the north.

(Actually, that's not harsh at all. You ought to hear senior civil servants.)

ASBOs are civil orders issued by the courts upon application by the police, the Housing Executive, local councils and other statutory bodies requiring named individuals to desist from behaviour deemed anti-social.

Experience across the water, where ASBOs have been in use for some time, shows, not unexpectedly, that children and young people are much the most likely ASBO targets.

Orders can be issued against youngsters as young as 10. No criminal standard of proof is required. Hearsay evidence is acceptable. The behaviour complained against does not have to be criminal. "Hanging around" can be enough.

But breach of an order does amount to criminal behaviour and is punishable by up to five years in jail.

What's more, under-age youngsters issued with ASBOs will be "named and shamed." If they'd done a spot of mugging or burglary, on the other hand, and been charged in the courts, they'd enjoy anonymity.

As pointed out previously, in many parts of Northern Ireland, to identify a young person as an "anti-social element" is to alert the local paramilitary enforcers to a suitable case for brutalisation.

But none of that cuts any ice with the Viceroy on the Hill.

Among the groups which pleaded with Spellar to take time to consider were the Children's Law Centre, Include Youth, the NSPCC, Derry Children's Commission, Barnardos, the Parents' Advice Centre, Children in Northern Ireland and Save the Children. All were waved imperiously aside.

Last week, the Commissioner for Children and Young People - whose job is to advise Government on children's and young people's issues - looked for a judicial review of ASBOs.

The court rejected the plea, on the surprising ground that young people don't have a specific right in law to be consulted about measures directly affecting them. But the moral and political case remained. And was binned by the MP for Warley.

The Derry Children's Commission estimates that each ASBO will cost around £5000, and wonders if the money could be spent more constructively. But Hell, it's money no object with New Labour when it comes to putting the boot into the vulnerable.