Police accuse two-year-old of criminal damage

A girl of two has had her name stored on a Wiltshire Police database after being accused of criminal damage.

Chippenham Police were called to the incident after a neighbour dialled 999 to report the toddler, the daughter of his neighbours, after claiming she deliberately hit his car with a branch.

The child, who is too young to be charged or even questioned over the incident, will now have her name stored on a computerised police file but won't be added to the national crime database.

A police official, who admitted they had no choice but to treat the girl as a criminal suspect, said: "It is an astonishingly young age.

"The matter was resolved to the satisfaction of the people whose property was alleged to have been damaged. It was a mountain out of a molehill."

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling said: "This is just madness." A spokesman for children's charity Kidscape said: "You cannot have a child of two as a suspect - it is insane."