Binge Britain in full swing as all 12 youths in court blame crimes on under-age drinking

All 12 youngsters had been arrested after getting drunk during the school holidays - despite Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's pledge to halt the national under-age drinking crisis by providing £1 million in extra cash for police during the half-term break.

One girl, aged 15, admitted causing affray after downing ELEVEN bottles of alcopop WKD.

CCTV footage showed her remove one of her knee-high boots and beat a stranger over the head, starting a late-night town centre melee involving 20 other booze-fuelled youths.

She could have been sent to youth custody but was instead given a mere 20 hours' community service and ordered to pay £20 costs at £2 per week.

Meanwhile, a 16-year-old school dropout was caught driving his father's works van after knocking back cans of Stella Artois with pals.

The level of alcohol in his blood was nearly twice the drink-drive limit when police pulled him over.

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Magistrates at Hastings Youth Court in East Sussex heard that he had taken the van to search for a man who had been "hitting on his sister". He was banned from driving for 16 months and given a nine-month referral order.

Another youth, aged 16, attacked a fellow teenager just for looking at him - after downing cans of 5.2 per cent lager and a two-litre bottle of strong cider at a park in sleepy Rye, East Sussex.

His victim suffered a broken nose and facial swelling so severe that he could not open his eye.

The attacker was given a 12-month referral order and ordered to pay £75 compensation.

Next up during Friday's proceedings was a 17-year-old thug who downed lager and cider before running amok through a housing estate, smashing fences, pelting eggs at windows, yelling obscenities at neighbours and spitting in one man's face.

He also knocked a woman's camera out of her hands as she tried to get photographic evidence of his wrecking spree.

The yob, who admitted criminal damage and assault, was ordered to pay £250 compensation and £100 in costs at £5 per week.

Magistrates were also told about a 15-year-old Asbo menace who breached his curfew nine times in just two weeks.

The boy, who has a long history of alcohol-related violence and disorder, told the court: "I go out in the evenings with my mates. Sometimes I lose track of the time. It's not my fault."

He was given a £24 fine. Even his lawyer said: "He has breached almost every order he's ever been given - and on the occasions he's been given a second chance, he's breached them again."

One persistent offender failed to turn up at court to face sentencing for a charge of burglary. The court heard that the 16-year-old had stolen drugs from a supply room at Woodbourne Priory Hospital in Kent, where he was receiving treatment for alcoholism.

Our dossier of violence and vandalism - a snapshot of the yob culture plaguing Britain - comes after an Office of National Statistics study revealed thousands of children as young as 12 are drinking regularly simply in order "to get drunk".

As many as 23 per cent of under-16s said they had been in trouble with police after drinking, and 42 per cent said they had started drinking BEFORE they turned 13.

Last month, it was revealed that the annual toll of teenagers and children convicted of violent crimes had rocketed from 17,590 to 24,102 since 2005.

The Home Secretary said: "We have reached a worrying tipping point - where more 13-year-olds have drunk alcohol than have not.

"The idea that you can hand your kids a six-pack of lager and tell them to disappear off for the evening, with no thought of the consequences, baffles me."

The Information Centre for Health and Social Care also found that every day 14 children under 16 years old are treated in hospital for alcohol - and police seized more than 6,500 pints of alcohol from teenagers during a month-long crackdown in January.

Hastings' Labour MP Michael Foster today demanded sterner, concerted action by authorities and families to end the blight of child binge-drinking.

"Police need tougher powers to really clamp down on under-age drinking in public places," he said.

"Binge-drinking teenagers are causing major problems, and parents must play their part.

"The Government is responsible for enforcing the law and making it very clear to society that irresponsible and violent behaviour is simply not acceptable."

Deborah Cameron, of drug and alcohol campaign group Addaction, said: "The police already take booze away from young people and fine them, but then nothing else happens."

The Government is preparing an advertising campaign for summer in the hope of making binge-drinking as unacceptable as drink-driving.