Jailed 12-year-old set for release

The 12-year-old girl being kept in a Victorian jail on the Isle of Man may be released into a children's home within the next few days, it was revealed last night.

Civil liberties campaigners were outraged after The Independent disclosed that the girl had been jailed on remand, on charges of assaulting social workers and criminal damage, and a judge will today be asked to order her release into a home. Manx social services are working with the girl's solicitor to put together a package of measures that would allow her release. The island's director of social services, David Cooke, said: "We would actually prefer no child was locked up unless it was absolutely essential." Under the island's laws children as young as 10 can be jailed.