PRISON inmates are helping youngsters build two Daleks to exterminate the problems of drugs and disability discrimination.

Youth worker Keith Jones and young people at the Teesdale Community Resources (TCR) group, in Barnard Castle, County Durham, have been building two replica Daleks, which will be worth about £4,000 each when complete.

The Daleks are being built with the help of inmates at Kirklevington Prison, at Yarm, near Stockton, as part of the prison service's Inside Out programme.

The first Dalek has now been completed and "Kirk Levitation" was unleashed on an unsuspecting public at the Barnard Castle Meet parade at the weekend, with TCR vice-chairman Dave Kidd playing the part of Doctor Who.

When "Mrs Levitation" is complete, Mr Jones hopes to use the Daleks to tour schools with an anti-drugs message.

Each Dalek is fitted with a wheelchair motor, provided by Andrew Parnaby, of Spennymoor, County Durham.

They have a top speed of 11mph, a grabbing claw, a voice modulator with lights that flash when the Dalek talks, a "gun" fitted with a carbon dioxide canister and a fan for the over-heated driver.

Mr Jones said: "We're also hoping to use them to test accessibility on buildings.

"If a Dalek can't get in, then neither can a wheelchair.

"You might be safe from the Daleks, but not from prosecution."