Counting the lasting cost of youth crime.

Crime Kids (BBC2)

SPIDER Boy and Balaclava Boy were two young lads from the North-East who found national fame in the early 1990s thanks to their crime sprees. This documentary, Double Trouble, pieced together their stories, painting a fascinating picture of the difficulties of breaking free once you've begun the descent on the slippery slope to unlawfulness.

Tom Laws, alias Spider Boy, talked honestly about his problems. Balaclava Boy, Gareth Brogden, couldn't - he's dead. He swallowed a condom containing heroin when stopped by the police. He spat out the drugs but the condom became lodged in his throat and he choked to death.

The programme didn't seek to sensationalise the adventures of the two boys who became Britain's most persistent child criminals. But, for all that, you were left feeling helpless at the hopelessness of it all.

Laws, from North Shields, spent half his teenage life behind bars. Brogden, from the West View estate in Hartlepool, committed his first burglary at seven.

Laws was first seen, on his release, complaining about the prison service. They'd failed to provide him with the resources to cope in the outside world, where he looked forward to seeing his new-born son. He faced a future without work, money or a home.

As his grandmother Doreen and sister Julie spoke fondly of him, it became clear that a difficult childhood had led to his wild ways. As a youngster, he was hyperactive and frequently wandered away from home. He was taken into care when he was eight, but residential homes were no more successful at controlling him than his family. He went to six different children's homes and five foster families, and ran away from all of them.

At ten, he was old enough to be sent to secure units after getting into trouble. Again, he escaped.

Psychologists failed to get Laws to understand his actions. He proved his intelligence - his IQ was measured as more than 150 - by conning the prison chaplain into believing he'd turned to God. His life was spent in prison or on the run, even escaping from the dock at North Shields court. He spent 83 days at large, although his gran recalled him sneaking round to her house for dinner one day.

Like Laws, Gareth Brogden was too young to be named in court reports so was dubbed Balaclava Boy. He was cocky enough to give interviews wearing his mask and cheeky enough that, if he saw someone in their front garden, he'd nip round the back to rob their house.

He got into hard drugs and, at 17, was sentenced to two years in prison. He emerged, having kicked his heroin habit and got a job. He seemed to be growing up, until he started using heroin again. He died trying to conceal his drugs stash.

Crime Kids didn't offer any happy ending for Laws either. He did find a job last year. Then, after failing to keep a probation appointment, was sent back to finish his sentence. We saw him on his release, bitter about what had happened and unhopeful about the future.