The North West Evening Mail has come in for praise from detectives for helping track a teenage thug who carried out a terrifying racist attack.

Dozens of people rang in after the paper ran an appeal to catch a teenager who attacked a female Greek takeaway owner with a lump of wood.

The incident was caught on video and vital evidence from callers who responded to the Mail's appeal ensured the culprit was caught in days.

He was 14 at the time and cannot be named for legal reasons.

The youth was sentenced to a six-month detention order after admitting affray and criminal damage at Barrow Youth Court.

He and his mother both wept as magistrates watched the closed circuit TV coverage in court.

They were told how he first hurled racist abuse at the woman before causing £50 of damage to the shop window by banging a stick on it, and then shouting further racial abuse before throwing the stick at his victim.

Detective sergeant Doug Marshall said after the hearing: "It was a shocking incident in the first place. We hope that this sends a message out that this sort of behaviour is not going to be tolerated.

"I would like to thank the Evening Mail for its involvement in highlighting this issue and all those members of the public who rang in."

The court was told the youth was remorseful about the incident and had written a letter of apology to his victim.

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