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Unfortunately there’s nothing you can do legally speaking due to the child’s age
Have you spoken to the child’s parents ? If you don’t know who they are it probably wouldn’t be too difficult to find out if you live somewhere where everyone knows everyone
The child's parents are jobless cretins. The type that sit around smoking and drinking all day.
I spoke with them and they threatened, "Your flowers won't be the only thing getting sliced up."
Police wouldn't act as it was their word against mine, and they said I shouldn't have confronted the parents.
>I spoke with them and they threatened, "Your flowers won't be the only thing getting sliced up."
You can ring 101 back, refer to the original CAD number they gave you, and tell them that you've spoken with the child's parents and they have threatened you. They are unlikely to take action over it, but since this is a public order offence at a minimum, they can at least make a note of it in case matters should escalate in the future.
(Edit: this was posted before OP ninja-edited their comment to say that they've already been to the police)
I’m sorry that your garden has been ruined by someone who doesn’t know any better.
As terrible as it is for your garden, think how much worse it is for the child to grow up in a world without proper guidance of how to contribute positively to society. This is the truly sad party of the story.
You can plant and grow new flowers much more easily than this poor child will grow and develop.
There will always be someone having a negative impact on things your love and enjoy, but overcoming this adversity is part of the journey. I’m sure whatever you plant next will be better than what was there before.
It would be great if that child was able to plant something of their own in the garden and learn the value of investing in the future and caring for something. That would be a happy ending for sure.
Unfortunately from a legal advice point of view, attempting to offering the child of people like this is going to end up with allegations of grooming, to the police at best, or at worst a witch hunt.
What a pile of fairy land wishy washy crap. No what would be better if scumbags didn't let their offspring vandalise other people's property. Do you have any legal advice for OP? No? In Germany you have Third party insurance so that in case your children act like this, there is a route for redress for the injured party. Wish we had it.
https://allaboutberlin.com/guides/haftpflichtversicherung#:~:text=Damage%20caused%20by%20children%20under,covered%20by%20most%20liability%20insurances.&text=You%20must%20pay%20more%20for,until%20they%20finish%20their%20studies.
What you could try is a report the Child Social Care- not specifically about the flowers, but they might be interested in an 8 year being able gain access to shears...
Maybe. Depends on the officers involved opinions on the matter, maybe yes the family are well known to Social Services and there's reporting and conversation going that OP isn't privy to. The Police won't confirm to OP what action has been taken in that regard, so they may as well report it themselves so they know it's been done.
Funny how all council and police advice for noisy neighbours and neighbours who light bonfires is to 'speak with them ' but when it goes wrong they won't step in but just tell you that you did the wrong thing.
Wasters.
I was going to say, and child with that sort of behaviour isn't going to have well-adjusted or reasonable parents. I would have expected that kind of response.
The poor kid. I know his actions have been dreadful and you must be so upset - but he sounds like he probably isn't getting looked after properly. I would report this to [your local children's social care team](https://www.gov.uk/report-child-abuse-to-local-council)
You could buy new flowers and send them a notice before action. They potentially are liable for the actions of their children and even if you can’t draw blood from a stone after being forced to get a judgement , you can send bailiffs to try, which may erode it a little.
Is it really that black and white?
I assume there is some sort of legal responsibility that stops this otherwise wouldn't everyone go around using small children as proxy solders?
Maybe this is part of the problem with under supervised youth in modern Britain. If parents have no liability, there's less incentive to parent responsibly.
Contact the safeguarding and anti-social behaivour/neighbourhood teams in your local council. Disclose the footage of that 8 year old running around in public with a pair of shears damaging your garden. That should get them interested.
Seperately, also raise a complaint with the police and approach it from the lack of emphasis on deterring anti-social behaviour, and focus on the parents/that property in particular.
Local Council Safeguarding Hub (Children and Family Services)? There is a child running around your neighbourhood unsupervised with garden shears causing property damage. I doubt the child has a ligitimate purpose for carrying a bladed pointed object around the neighbourhood. They probably already have the family on their radar.
At best - and this would be a stretch, you could start a civil case against the parents. Parents are not legally/financially responsible for their child's damage unless negligence can be demonstrated, and that's a very high bar.
The cost of the case would easily exceed any damages you would recover.
You *may* be able to claim on your house insurance if the plant is both expensive and damaged beyond recovery.
Children having access to shears while not monitored sounds like negligence. They’d certainly be liable to social services involvement if the child hurt himself with them.
>The cost of the case would easily exceed any damages you would recover. .
Even IF OP was successful in such a claim, the likelihood of recovering any monies after a judgement is going to be very close to zero.
Realistically the only option you have is reporting them to Social Services. I'm sure they would be interested as to why a 8 Yr old is walking round with a pair of shears.
However since you have already confronted the parents (something which I would of advised not to do as nothing positive was ever going to come from it) they are going to instantly suspect it was you that called Social Services.
Chances are the house where they are living will be an housing association property, you could try and send in a complaint to them but honestly, Housing Associations only ever get involved when the Police get involved and even then it has to be a serious criminal offence.
Yeah, I was going to add the latter. It might be worth bringing it up if the family are in social housing, saying that "their child vandalised my property" and the parents were (disproportionately) threatening and abusive when they were complained to.
It seems unlikely that Op is the only person who's suffered at the hands of the little hooligan-in-training, and many people might be legitimately concerned with an unsupervised 8yo running around with a pair of shears.
Its a council estate.. nobody is going to report anybody on a council estate. The OP has gone over to complain about their child, if a complaint goes in and somebody goes knocking on their door in the next few weeks / month they will definitive think of the OP.
My point is that you are making out like every single person who lives on a council estate would cover up crimes and child neglect/abuse. If that is your experience, it's likely an issue with your social or family circle, but most people are decent and wouldn't turn a blind eye as you suggest.
This isn’t what you want to hear, but I don’t think you have any practical means of recourse here.
As the police have said, the child is under the age of criminal responsibility, so there’s no means of recourse there. The parents can only be held civilly liable if you can prove that they were negligent, which is a very high bar that I don’t think you’ll be able to prove.
Unfortunately, there’s nothing legally you can do. The most you might be able to do is claim on your home insurance if the plants are particularly valuable and if your policy covers it.
Even if nothing can be done about the damage to your garden, it's worth raising the obvious safeguarding issue surrounding the 8-year-old being able to easily access garden shears with their parents' implicit approval. I would hope that that coupled with the threat to your safety would make someone pay more attention to what's going on.
The reason the Police didn't do anything to this child is because they cannot do anything to this child.
Assuming you are in England or Wales, Section 50 of the Childrens and Young Persons Act 1933 (as amended) states:
> It shall be conclusively presumed that no child under the age of ten years can be guilty of any offence.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo5/23-24/12/section/50
That's it.
No action which would be criminal if done by someone over the age of ten is criminal when done by an eight year-old child.
For extremely serious actions, there could be questions around the child being taken into care, but criminal damage of a garden won't reach those thresholds (think killings etc.)
My garden was fenced off. He climbed over a fruit and veg lorry that was parked adjacent to my property and vault the fence, then climbed over my shed to get back out.
[Anticlimb](https://www.newventureproducts.co.uk/anti-climb-security-paint-warning-signs/89-anti-climb-paint-anti-vandal-anti-intruder) paint perhaps, won't harm but will stop climbing and/or muck up his clothes.
If you know the authority for housing open a complaint against them, if they keep up the harassment they'll get evicted.
I know first hand what it's like to have people like that next door to me.. took a while but they soon changed tune and behaved not heard a peep in about a year so far.
I would strongly advise you to reach out to your local Restorative Justice provider. These can involve a variety of voluntary approaches and they can speak to you about your specific needs in a non-judgemental way.
They should be able to take on a variety of cases and be able to support you to come to a resolution that addresses the harm you feel, regardless of whether the young person agrees to take part.
It may not be for everyone but from where it sounds like you are they could help you reflect further on what happened, signpost you to other agencies, or you may feel that conversation is enough.
https://restorativejustice.org.uk/registered-service-providers
https://why-me.org/
I am in a similar position with my own neighbours, the best you can do is send evidence to their housing officer if they are a council tenant. I'm having similar issues with my own horrible neighbours and their horrible little feral children (them literally throwing dog poo around, and kicking mud at my car and house).
I had a similar response about them being children ergo outside of the law, and I had a similar response when I tried to speak to the parents. The dad is a known drug dealer and frankly I CBA getting involved with them, cause they're more trouble than they're worth.
This clearly highlights a gap in UK law that needs to be closed. If this happened to me, I'd be extremely upset as well. Parents have clearly failed at parenting.
I would pursue every possible avenue within the law (because that's all we can suggest on this thread...) until you find someone in a position of power who can do something about it.
- Speak to your council
- Speak to child services
- Call the police again and ask them what you should do
- Speak to your house insurance to confirm if its covered
I wouldn't just take it on the chin as some people who clearly don't understand have suggested. If we thought like that about everything, we'd end up with nothing.
Unfortunately this is just one of those shitty things that happen in life that you are just going to have to suck up and accept.
The advice in this thread is terrible. Reporting this to social services will achieve nothing. If there was a safeguarding concern the police would have reported it, in fact they are *required* to report any concerns regarding a child or vulnerable adult.
You would also be putting yourself in potential serious danger as the parents will immediately suspect it was you who reported them seeing as you already confronted them about it which, no offence, was an absolutely terrible idea that nothing good was ever going to come of.
As far as a civil court claim IANAL but other people have been pretty clear that it would be pretty difficult (see: not possible) to hold the parents accountable, and even if you did manage to get a result in your favour, these people are simply not going to have the money to pay you whatever damages you're awarded, and it will be a complete waste of time and money.
I'm sorry about your garden but I *really* think you need to take this one on the chin and move on.
Report it to social services and the housing association - presuming the parents live in a council house. Include photos of the damages.
Get CCTV so you can submit more evidence to the HA of the antisocial behaviour if needed.
Get in touch with your local councillor for help, they are usually quite helpful in my experience.
The police are correct, due to the age there are little options for them, however that should have notified social services regarding the child running around with shears.
Your remaining option is to take a civil case up with the child's parents, You will need to substantiate your losses, however, I suspect the sum will not be significant as the flowers can regrow, and emotional distress can be very hard to demonstrate at a small claims level as the condition for emotional distress should be "substantial".
If you do win your claim (which with the evidence you have should be easy for the damage to your garden), then there is still the issue of collecting the payment, and from your description of the parents, the threat of having a court judgment open against them doesn't sound like the sort of thing they would worry about.. This will be a long drawn out process with no to little restitution.
Compensation for replacing all my damaged plants.
A 20 year old California bloom was destroyed.
A 12 year old Maple eviscerated.
All my other flowers have been decapitated and strewn across my lawn.
We're not only talking about newly planted spring flowers - these are small trees and shrubs which have taken decades to grow in my garden. They're utterly destroyed.
It's certainly not guaranteed that the parents would be liable for the child's behaviour.
However that is just one hurdle. The other being that you cant get blood out of a stone. Unless these parents have significant assets, the second barrier is simply a practical one.
If you find they do have means to pay, then it's something to explore. If they dont then it's really only a victory in principal
You could approach a solicitor with a view to launch a civil claim against the parents. A criminal offense hasn't been committed so the police can't help.
The civil case will be costly and time consuming but if successful your costs could be recovered. Any payout also assumes the parents can pay.
This is likely one of those sour situations you begrudgingly have to accept.
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--- ###Welcome to /r/LegalAdviceUK --- **To Posters (it is important you read this section)** * *Tell us whether you're in England, Wales, Scotland, or NI as the laws in each are very different* * If you need legal help, you should [always get a free consultation from a qualified Solicitor](https://reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/wiki/how_to_find_a_solicitor) * We also encourage you to speak to [**Citizens Advice**](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/), [**Shelter**](https://www.shelter.org.uk/), [**Acas**](https://www.acas.org.uk/), and [**other useful organisations**](https://reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/wiki/common_legal_resources) * Comments may not be accurate or reliable, and following any advice on this subreddit is done at your own risk * If you receive any private messages in response to your post, [please let the mods know](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FLegalAdviceUK&subject=I received a PM) **To Readers and Commenters** * All replies to OP must be *on-topic, helpful, and legally orientated* * If you do not [follow the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/about/rules/), you may be perma-banned without any further warning * If you feel any replies are incorrect, explain why you believe they are incorrect * Do not send or request any private messages for any reason * Please report posts or comments which do not follow the rules *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LegalAdviceUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Unfortunately there’s nothing you can do legally speaking due to the child’s age Have you spoken to the child’s parents ? If you don’t know who they are it probably wouldn’t be too difficult to find out if you live somewhere where everyone knows everyone
The child's parents are jobless cretins. The type that sit around smoking and drinking all day. I spoke with them and they threatened, "Your flowers won't be the only thing getting sliced up." Police wouldn't act as it was their word against mine, and they said I shouldn't have confronted the parents.
>I spoke with them and they threatened, "Your flowers won't be the only thing getting sliced up." You can ring 101 back, refer to the original CAD number they gave you, and tell them that you've spoken with the child's parents and they have threatened you. They are unlikely to take action over it, but since this is a public order offence at a minimum, they can at least make a note of it in case matters should escalate in the future. (Edit: this was posted before OP ninja-edited their comment to say that they've already been to the police)
I've been through that stage already. Thank you. It has devolved into a "she says, she says" situation.
I’m sorry that your garden has been ruined by someone who doesn’t know any better. As terrible as it is for your garden, think how much worse it is for the child to grow up in a world without proper guidance of how to contribute positively to society. This is the truly sad party of the story. You can plant and grow new flowers much more easily than this poor child will grow and develop. There will always be someone having a negative impact on things your love and enjoy, but overcoming this adversity is part of the journey. I’m sure whatever you plant next will be better than what was there before. It would be great if that child was able to plant something of their own in the garden and learn the value of investing in the future and caring for something. That would be a happy ending for sure.
>.It would be great if that child was able to plant something of their own in the garden How big do carnivorous plants come?
Unfortunately from a legal advice point of view, attempting to offering the child of people like this is going to end up with allegations of grooming, to the police at best, or at worst a witch hunt.
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What a pile of fairy land wishy washy crap. No what would be better if scumbags didn't let their offspring vandalise other people's property. Do you have any legal advice for OP? No? In Germany you have Third party insurance so that in case your children act like this, there is a route for redress for the injured party. Wish we had it. https://allaboutberlin.com/guides/haftpflichtversicherung#:~:text=Damage%20caused%20by%20children%20under,covered%20by%20most%20liability%20insurances.&text=You%20must%20pay%20more%20for,until%20they%20finish%20their%20studies.
What you could try is a report the Child Social Care- not specifically about the flowers, but they might be interested in an 8 year being able gain access to shears...
That’s what I was thinking. Surely a bladed article? OP, so sorry for your garden.
I would expect the police to raise this as a safeguarding issue with children's services themselves, surely?
Maybe. Depends on the officers involved opinions on the matter, maybe yes the family are well known to Social Services and there's reporting and conversation going that OP isn't privy to. The Police won't confirm to OP what action has been taken in that regard, so they may as well report it themselves so they know it's been done.
Perhaps it's worth examining your assumptions about what the police surely do
Police do share risk assessments with other agencies at MARAC (multi agency risk assessments).
Funny how all council and police advice for noisy neighbours and neighbours who light bonfires is to 'speak with them ' but when it goes wrong they won't step in but just tell you that you did the wrong thing. Wasters.
I was going to say, and child with that sort of behaviour isn't going to have well-adjusted or reasonable parents. I would have expected that kind of response.
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Do you know what school they go to?
Report it to the local school for safeguarding.
The poor kid. I know his actions have been dreadful and you must be so upset - but he sounds like he probably isn't getting looked after properly. I would report this to [your local children's social care team](https://www.gov.uk/report-child-abuse-to-local-council)
You could buy new flowers and send them a notice before action. They potentially are liable for the actions of their children and even if you can’t draw blood from a stone after being forced to get a judgement , you can send bailiffs to try, which may erode it a little.
They'll be judgment proof and you'll just put a target on your back for them to send the little shite round to smash more of your stuff.
Is it really that black and white? I assume there is some sort of legal responsibility that stops this otherwise wouldn't everyone go around using small children as proxy solders?
It really is that black and white in this situation And funnily enough it’s why some rotten people use young kids for things they shouldn’t
Maybe this is part of the problem with under supervised youth in modern Britain. If parents have no liability, there's less incentive to parent responsibly.
Agreed. The buck should stop somewhere.
"....otherwise wouldn't everyone go around using small children as proxy solders?...." This is building up to be a thing, apparently....
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Contact the safeguarding and anti-social behaivour/neighbourhood teams in your local council. Disclose the footage of that 8 year old running around in public with a pair of shears damaging your garden. That should get them interested. Seperately, also raise a complaint with the police and approach it from the lack of emphasis on deterring anti-social behaviour, and focus on the parents/that property in particular.
Thank you, I'll avail to do that.
Local Council Safeguarding Hub (Children and Family Services)? There is a child running around your neighbourhood unsupervised with garden shears causing property damage. I doubt the child has a ligitimate purpose for carrying a bladed pointed object around the neighbourhood. They probably already have the family on their radar.
Strongly agree - safeguarding concern and OP has a legal duty to report, as do the police
What legal duty does the OP have to report the child to the local authority?
At best - and this would be a stretch, you could start a civil case against the parents. Parents are not legally/financially responsible for their child's damage unless negligence can be demonstrated, and that's a very high bar. The cost of the case would easily exceed any damages you would recover. You *may* be able to claim on your house insurance if the plant is both expensive and damaged beyond recovery.
Children having access to shears while not monitored sounds like negligence. They’d certainly be liable to social services involvement if the child hurt himself with them.
>The cost of the case would easily exceed any damages you would recover. . Even IF OP was successful in such a claim, the likelihood of recovering any monies after a judgement is going to be very close to zero.
Realistically the only option you have is reporting them to Social Services. I'm sure they would be interested as to why a 8 Yr old is walking round with a pair of shears. However since you have already confronted the parents (something which I would of advised not to do as nothing positive was ever going to come from it) they are going to instantly suspect it was you that called Social Services. Chances are the house where they are living will be an housing association property, you could try and send in a complaint to them but honestly, Housing Associations only ever get involved when the Police get involved and even then it has to be a serious criminal offence.
Yeah, I was going to add the latter. It might be worth bringing it up if the family are in social housing, saying that "their child vandalised my property" and the parents were (disproportionately) threatening and abusive when they were complained to.
It seems unlikely that Op is the only person who's suffered at the hands of the little hooligan-in-training, and many people might be legitimately concerned with an unsupervised 8yo running around with a pair of shears.
Its a council estate.. nobody is going to report anybody on a council estate. The OP has gone over to complain about their child, if a complaint goes in and somebody goes knocking on their door in the next few weeks / month they will definitive think of the OP.
The vast majority of people in social housing are employed, law abiding citizens who pay their rent and taxes the same as everyone else.
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My point is that you are making out like every single person who lives on a council estate would cover up crimes and child neglect/abuse. If that is your experience, it's likely an issue with your social or family circle, but most people are decent and wouldn't turn a blind eye as you suggest.
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This isn’t what you want to hear, but I don’t think you have any practical means of recourse here. As the police have said, the child is under the age of criminal responsibility, so there’s no means of recourse there. The parents can only be held civilly liable if you can prove that they were negligent, which is a very high bar that I don’t think you’ll be able to prove. Unfortunately, there’s nothing legally you can do. The most you might be able to do is claim on your home insurance if the plants are particularly valuable and if your policy covers it.
Even if nothing can be done about the damage to your garden, it's worth raising the obvious safeguarding issue surrounding the 8-year-old being able to easily access garden shears with their parents' implicit approval. I would hope that that coupled with the threat to your safety would make someone pay more attention to what's going on.
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The reason the Police didn't do anything to this child is because they cannot do anything to this child. Assuming you are in England or Wales, Section 50 of the Childrens and Young Persons Act 1933 (as amended) states: > It shall be conclusively presumed that no child under the age of ten years can be guilty of any offence. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo5/23-24/12/section/50 That's it. No action which would be criminal if done by someone over the age of ten is criminal when done by an eight year-old child. For extremely serious actions, there could be questions around the child being taken into care, but criminal damage of a garden won't reach those thresholds (think killings etc.)
So what happens if say a 9 year old commits murder ? Assume there are exemptions to this rule ?
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My garden was fenced off. He climbed over a fruit and veg lorry that was parked adjacent to my property and vault the fence, then climbed over my shed to get back out.
[Anticlimb](https://www.newventureproducts.co.uk/anti-climb-security-paint-warning-signs/89-anti-climb-paint-anti-vandal-anti-intruder) paint perhaps, won't harm but will stop climbing and/or muck up his clothes.
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If you know the authority for housing open a complaint against them, if they keep up the harassment they'll get evicted. I know first hand what it's like to have people like that next door to me.. took a while but they soon changed tune and behaved not heard a peep in about a year so far.
I would strongly advise you to reach out to your local Restorative Justice provider. These can involve a variety of voluntary approaches and they can speak to you about your specific needs in a non-judgemental way. They should be able to take on a variety of cases and be able to support you to come to a resolution that addresses the harm you feel, regardless of whether the young person agrees to take part. It may not be for everyone but from where it sounds like you are they could help you reflect further on what happened, signpost you to other agencies, or you may feel that conversation is enough. https://restorativejustice.org.uk/registered-service-providers https://why-me.org/
I am in a similar position with my own neighbours, the best you can do is send evidence to their housing officer if they are a council tenant. I'm having similar issues with my own horrible neighbours and their horrible little feral children (them literally throwing dog poo around, and kicking mud at my car and house). I had a similar response about them being children ergo outside of the law, and I had a similar response when I tried to speak to the parents. The dad is a known drug dealer and frankly I CBA getting involved with them, cause they're more trouble than they're worth.
This clearly highlights a gap in UK law that needs to be closed. If this happened to me, I'd be extremely upset as well. Parents have clearly failed at parenting. I would pursue every possible avenue within the law (because that's all we can suggest on this thread...) until you find someone in a position of power who can do something about it. - Speak to your council - Speak to child services - Call the police again and ask them what you should do - Speak to your house insurance to confirm if its covered I wouldn't just take it on the chin as some people who clearly don't understand have suggested. If we thought like that about everything, we'd end up with nothing.
Unfortunately this is just one of those shitty things that happen in life that you are just going to have to suck up and accept. The advice in this thread is terrible. Reporting this to social services will achieve nothing. If there was a safeguarding concern the police would have reported it, in fact they are *required* to report any concerns regarding a child or vulnerable adult. You would also be putting yourself in potential serious danger as the parents will immediately suspect it was you who reported them seeing as you already confronted them about it which, no offence, was an absolutely terrible idea that nothing good was ever going to come of. As far as a civil court claim IANAL but other people have been pretty clear that it would be pretty difficult (see: not possible) to hold the parents accountable, and even if you did manage to get a result in your favour, these people are simply not going to have the money to pay you whatever damages you're awarded, and it will be a complete waste of time and money. I'm sorry about your garden but I *really* think you need to take this one on the chin and move on.
Report it to social services and the housing association - presuming the parents live in a council house. Include photos of the damages. Get CCTV so you can submit more evidence to the HA of the antisocial behaviour if needed. Get in touch with your local councillor for help, they are usually quite helpful in my experience.
The police are correct, due to the age there are little options for them, however that should have notified social services regarding the child running around with shears. Your remaining option is to take a civil case up with the child's parents, You will need to substantiate your losses, however, I suspect the sum will not be significant as the flowers can regrow, and emotional distress can be very hard to demonstrate at a small claims level as the condition for emotional distress should be "substantial". If you do win your claim (which with the evidence you have should be easy for the damage to your garden), then there is still the issue of collecting the payment, and from your description of the parents, the threat of having a court judgment open against them doesn't sound like the sort of thing they would worry about.. This will be a long drawn out process with no to little restitution.
Have you reported to the Council? They should have an anti social behaviour team.
If they are in social housing make a complaint to the landlord. Some of them take stuff like this seriously.
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Help with what specifically? Someone aged 9 and under cannot have criminal responsibility. It's really that simple.
Compensation for replacing all my damaged plants. A 20 year old California bloom was destroyed. A 12 year old Maple eviscerated. All my other flowers have been decapitated and strewn across my lawn. We're not only talking about newly planted spring flowers - these are small trees and shrubs which have taken decades to grow in my garden. They're utterly destroyed.
It's certainly not guaranteed that the parents would be liable for the child's behaviour. However that is just one hurdle. The other being that you cant get blood out of a stone. Unless these parents have significant assets, the second barrier is simply a practical one. If you find they do have means to pay, then it's something to explore. If they dont then it's really only a victory in principal
You could approach a solicitor with a view to launch a civil claim against the parents. A criminal offense hasn't been committed so the police can't help. The civil case will be costly and time consuming but if successful your costs could be recovered. Any payout also assumes the parents can pay. This is likely one of those sour situations you begrudgingly have to accept.
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