A SCHOOLBOY has spoken about his frustrating ordeal after he was locked up in a police station for 23 hours.

The 15-year-old, from Lidget Green, was woken up in the middle of the night by police investigating a robbery and took him to Trafalgar House police station at 5am.

He was not interviewed about the robbery – which police later admitted he played no part in – until 4.30pm the same day; nearly 12 hours after he arrived, claiming they needed his mum to be there to act as his appropriate adult.

When he was eventually interviewed, he gave an alibi and was told he would soon be released.

However, an officer told the boy he would have to go back to his cell because his co-accused had not been interviewed and the police did not want to release him until that interview had taken place.

That interview did not happen until 10pm and the police only went into his cell to release him when his solicitor phoned CID and questioned why his client was still in custody.

By this point, the youngster says he was frustrated, hungry and angry and when officers refused to give him his trainers back, he lashed out and headbutted one of the detention officers.

READ MORE: Shock as children as young as 10 are held overnight in police custody

John Bottomley, the teenager’s solicitor advocate, has described his client as being like a ‘caged animal’ and he claims the police should not have treated an adult like this, let alone a child.

It was these emotions which led to the boy acting in the way he did and after he calmed down and admitted the assault, he was interviewed, referred to the Youth Offending Team and eventually released from custody at 4.30am.

“I was really frustrated in the cell and it’s not nice for an hour, nevermind 23,” the boy told the Telegraph & Argus.

“I kept thinking about why I was there and it kept going through my head that I was an innocent person in a cell wasting my life.

“When I had my first interview I gave them an alibi and thought I would be going home, then I was told I would be going back to my cell.

“When I was waiting for the interview it was getting to me and I felt I was being mistreated.”

He said he lashed out when it became clear he would not be getting his expensive Nike Air Max 97 trainers back.

"Anger got the better of me," he added.

"I don't really blame myself because I was there many hours and I shouldn't have been.

"It wasn't my intention to hit anyone, but it was down to how I was being treated in the cell.

Mr Bottomley added: “He fully admitted the headbutt and apologised.

“He said he was locked up in a cell for so long that he was a caged animal and he was wound up.

“They created that situation and if you are going to keep a child in custody for that long it will wind people up.

"They ignored his age and treated him like anyone else.

"He could have been interviewed at noon and they didn't speak to his mum until 1pm.

"When she said she couldn't get there they could have got somebody else to be the appropriate adult."

Last month we reported how children as young as 10 were among the 5,684 youngsters to be kept overnight in police custody in West Yorkshire in the last five years.

A West Yorkshire Police spokesperson said:“In cases where more than one suspect is brought into custody for an offence they are detained until all of those in for that matter have been interviewed.

"Officers can make use of alternative arrangements where children are arrested, but the seriousness of the alleged offence meant that none of these would have been considered appropriate.”