Girl, 16, banned from high street

Maxine Jeans is one of the most prolific and violent young criminal in Britain. She first went off the rails at 11 when she was found guilty of arson. Now, at 16, she has notched up 125 offences ranging from assaults on police to a vicious campaign of harassment against her neighbours.

For the past five years she has defied the efforts of the authorities to bring her under control. The police have admitted she has been a law unto herself and until now they have been powerless to stop her.

One female police sergeant, Fiona Voller, who has been attacked and threatened by Jeans in the past, said: "She is the child from hell, she is the bane of our lives at this police station. As an individual she causes us more work and grief than anyone else in this section."

However, for the first time a judge, at Portsmouth Magistrates' Court, has given Jeans's neighbourhood a glimmer of hope, by making her the subject of a stringent anti-social behaviour order lasting five years - the longest ever believed to have been imposed by an English court. The order means she is:

? banned from going into her local high street, in Cosham, Hampshire

? banned from threatening residents living in Portsmouth

? banned from assaulting and attacking police officers

? banned from encouraging others to threaten or harass people living in Portsmouth.

A judge lifted an order banning her identification because of her age. If she steps out of line she will be arrested and brought back to courts where she could be jailed for up to two years. By 15 Jeans had clocked up more crimes than anyone else in her city.

Superintendent Paul Netherton said: "Maxine Jeans, on her previous convictions, comes out as the most violent offender in Portsmouth. Most of her assaults have been on police and about 50 per cent of the staff - 30 officers - at the Cosham station have been either verbally or physically assaulted by her."

Her other crimes include assaults, using threatening behaviour, robbery and theft. But many of the attacks she has carried out have not gone to court because the victims were too scared to give evidence against her.

Three spells in youth custody have not deterred her - within less than a month of her release she has offended again.

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