A gang of schoolboys tried to 'lynch' a seven-year-old with a home-made noose in a park in a chilling echo of the James Bulger case.

Bradley McLachlan was lured to a secluded area by three boys, all under ten, where they had already set up the rope.

They turned on him and pushed his head into the loop, tightened the knot and left him for dead, hovering a few inches above the ground and choking.