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Theme park gives free entry to ASBOs
A dungeon-themed tourist attraction has been slammed for offering free entry to anyone with an ASBO.
York Dungeon made the offer to mark the opening of an exhibition on justice this weeked, reports the York Press.
Local MP Hugh Bayley said: "This is a publicity-seeking gimmick which goes too far.
"The public needs protection from anti-social behaviour and York Dungeon shouldn't be rewarding people who have been sentenced to an ASBO by the courts.
"York's magistrates were the first in the country to hand out an ASBO and they were the first in the country to jail somebody for breaking the terms of an ASBO."
And a York resident, one of many to have their car tyres slashed when youths rampaged last year, complained: "This move by York Dungeon is absolutely disgusting.
"If I wanted to go into the Dungeon this weekend I'd have to pay, but if someone like the person who slashed my tyres went along they could get in for free. It's just not right.
Dungeon manager Helen Douglas said she made the offer to let offenders experience how their anti-social behaviour would have been dealt with in the past.
She said: "What we're handing out ASBOs for today are exactly the same sort of crimes that people would have been transported or even hanged for during the bloody code of the 18th century.
"While I'm by no means advocating a return to the punishments of old, I thought that it might shock the ASBOs a little to see what would have happened to them a couple of hundred years ago."
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