IN MIDDLESBROUGH in the late 1970s, there was a youngster who was such a prolific offender that today he would be given one of those silly "Boy" tags and have his nickname all over the papers.

He was eight when he became a one boy crimewave. He was on the rampage, burglary after burglary after burglary.

He became demonised in his area. The other residents - his victims - naturally hated him. They turned on his mother - a single parent, a nice woman, desperately trying her hardest to control her son - and tried to drive her out.

When on duty one night I heard that he had been locked up, I expected to find an evil, wicked monster when I opened the detention room door.

But I didn't. I found an eight-year-old boy, playing with a toy. He looked as if butter wouldn't melt in his mouth and he was so likeable I almost took him home.

It was quite shocking.

He couldn't explain his appalling behaviour. This, too, was quite shocking, but I found it was repeated with other young offenders. Often youngsters are egged on to commit crimes, driven on by bravado and an unwillingness to back down.

I have looked at the reaction to the proposed release of Robert Venables and Jon Thompson, the killers of James Bulger, with this experience in mind. I remember the scenes outside the court when they were convicted. There was a hate-filled mob, spitting and screaming at the van as it drove them away. The crowd was imagining evil monsters inside the van, but if the door had suddenly burst open, only two young boys would have been sitting there.

And on seeing them, I am sure most of the mob would have been shocked. Rather than tear them limb from limb, they would have been left wondering: "What the hell do we do with them?"

Of course, if I could feel what James' family is still going through, I would have very different opinions. If anyone had harmed my daughter, I would want revenge.

But that is why we have a Lord Chief Justice like Lord Woolf to set aside the emotions, to hear the arguments and to decide what he thinks is right. He will have asked himself where does punishment become vengeance; when should we stop punishing someone and start rehabilitating them?

These questions are even more complex with young people because, now 18, Thompson and Venables will have scant recall of what they did when they were ten - although what they do remember will haunt them for the rest of their lives.

And those questions are further confused when continuing punishment means a sentence in a Young Offenders' Institution which would be like enrolling them in a school of crime and drugs.

There are four themes in the Bible: good, evil, compassion and opportunity. After good versus evil comes a time for compassion and opportunity.

What Thompson and Venables did was unquestionably evil, but Lord Woolf has decided that now is the time for compassion and opportunity. I think he was right to give them a chance to escape the evil of their childhood.

The boy I knew in Middlesbrough never received that chance. He was put into care but kept absconding and went deeper into crime and drugs. He died a couple of years ago in his mid-twenties.

I HOPE all readers will vote for rower Steve Redgrave as the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

Regular readers will know that I enjoy personal fitness. I have been using the Concept 2 rowing machine in my gym for many years because it is one of the most gruelling of endurance sports. Since Redgrave's success, I have noticed more and more people trying the Concept 2. Not only has Redgrave put his sport on the map, but he has inspired thousands of people of all ages to improve their fitness regimes, which in itself deserves a medal.