A TEENAGER who was called "Homing Pigeon Boy" has spurned his latest chance of a fresh start.

Shaun McKerry was arrested three times in 11 days in September after being freed from a young offenders institution. He is now once more in detention.

Following his release in September, McKerry, 17, was arrested twice for stealing from shops in Spennymoor and Bishop Auckland, County Durham. He was arrested for a third time for breaking a curfew, which was part of his bail condition, and put up such a struggle that he was charged with assaulting three police officers.

Earlier this month, McKerry - called "Homing Pigeon Boy" because of his tendency to return home after committing crimes - was given a 15-month detention and training order after admitting his latest crimes to magistrates at Sedgefield.

He may now also be made to complete the order imposed upon him following an armed robbery at his local post office in Leeholme, near Bishop Auckland, in February 1999. McKerry stole £3,100 to buy heroin.

In August 2000, Durham Crown Court sentenced him to four years in a young offenders institution for the robbery. This was cut by a year because of his age by the Criminal Appeal Court - despite Lord Justice Kay's admission that "you don't get many worse records than this". He was referring to McKerry's one-boy crimewave which had seen him arrested 80 times since 1995.

The same day that he robbed Leeholme post office, The Northern Echo won a High Court battle for the right to publish his picture. Because McKerry was a juvenile, his identity would normally have been protected, but the Echo argued that he presented so grave a danger, his community needed to know who he was