​Two 12-year-old boys have been ordered to clean up the offensive graffiti they sprayed over the walls of a Bath primary school during the summer holidays.

Police officers used restorative justice to punish the young culprits for the £2,000 worth of damage at Moorlands Infant School.

Beat manager in the area PC Mark Brain said making them clean up the mess had been a good way to teach them a lesson.

He said: “It was a classic example of restorative justice – RJ – being the best and most appropriate way of handling the matter.

“The boys’ parents were horrified when they saw what they’d done, and the boys themselves were mortified when they realised the damage and hurt they’d caused to the school.”

The boys were given a stern telling off by the police and the school’s interim headteacher Linda Bamber and it was agreed they should write letters of apology.

They then had to spend a day at the school, in front of the pupils, working with Bath and North East Somerset Council’s anti-graffiti team to clean the windows and wall they had defaced.

PC Brain added: “In the past these boys would have been arrested and ended up with a criminal record.

“As it is, restorative justice means they’ve said sorry for what they did, they’ve learned a very sharp lesson and we hope they’ll never offend again.”