AN ATTACKER who smashed a girl in the face with a metal pole cannot be prosecuted - because she is only nine years old.

The victim, Ceri-Ann Samuel, was left with blood streaming from facial wounds after the incident.

Ceri-Ann had been playing with friends near her home in Coronation Road, Portland, when the incident happened.

The 11-year-old, who is a pupil at Wyke Regis Junior School, Weymouth, said: "We were going to play football and this girl hit me across the face and mouth with a metal pole. She did it on purpose. It hurt a lot.

"I just sat on the floor and started crying and the blood ran down. I went home and told my parents what happened."

Her father, Alan, said: "She ran home bleeding and as soon as I saw what had happened I called an ambulance. Her lip was split in three places and she told us how the nine-year-old girl had hit her in the face with a metal pole.

"Her lips were badly swollen and we were at Portland Hospital for an hour and a half while she was being treated."

Mr Samuel said that the police were informed what had happened but they told him the girl involved was too young to be prosecuted.

He said: "My hands were tied and I just had to sit there and let my daughter suffer because the girl who attacked her was only nine years old. I think the law should be changed so that if a child is too young to be prosecuted then the law can prosecute their parents."

Inspector Alan Jenkins of Weymouth Police confirmed the legal situation.

He said: "The law deems that somebody under the age of 10 is not fully capable of understanding the difference between right and wrong."