A TEENAGER who breached a banning order by using a computer at one of Worcester’s most iconic buildings was kept locked up in a police cell for two nights awaiting a court hearing.

Paul Sheward, defending, told Worcester magistrates that Luis Calado, aged 18, did not know he was technically in breach of a restraining order handed down by court last year.

His own social worker had taken him to the Hive only a few days prior to the offence, Mr Sheward said.

Mr Sheward said his client fully admitted breaching the order, and also carving his name into the wall of his police cell at Castle Street station, but questioned why the police felt it best to keep him in custody for a relatively minor crime.

There is no suggestion that Calado, of Bromyard Road, Worcester, had been doing anything wrong when he was spotted using a computer at the Hive on Sunday, August 19.

In May last year, Calado was punished for a public order offence with an order banning him from Worcestershire’s libraries until 2014.

However, as Mr Sheward pointed out, the Hive had not yet been built at the time and nor was it a building which functions solely as a library.

He said that a member of the public – formerly an employee with library services – had spotted Calado using a computer in the Hive and was aware that because of the banning order he was not allowed to be in the building.

That person reported Calado to library staff, who called the police.

Calado was arrested on Saturday, September 15, but was not given bail, meaning he spent two nights in the cells before being brought before magistrates on the Monday morning.

Mr Sheward said he could only surmise that bail had not been granted because of a previous offence for failing to attend a court hearing.

But he said Calado, who had such bad attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) that it required medication, had only damaged the cell wall because he had been kept locked up for 48 hours.

Mr Sheward said: “Was it necessary to keep an 18-year-old locked up for 48 hours for a technical breach of a restraining order?”

Calado was fined £25 and ordered to pay a £15 victim surcharge for the breach but was taken as paid for time served in the cells.

For etching the wall of his police cell, he was ordered to pay £50 compensation and £85 court costs.