British teen's trouser ban 'breaches human rights'

An order banning a British teenager from wearing low-slung trousers has been dropped after a judge ruled that it breached his human rights.

Ellis Drummond, 18, faced an anti-social behaviour order (ASBO) which included a ban on "wearing trousers so low beneath the waistline that members of the public are able to see his underwear".

The order, proposed by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), would also have stopped him from wearing a hooded top with the hood up, following convictions last month for assault, possession of Class B drugs and theft.

But the measures put forward by the CPS were withdrawn after judge Nicholas Leigh-Smith said Tuesday that "some of the requirements proposed struck me as contrary to the Human Rights Act".

In a ruling at Bedford magistrates' court, north of London, Drummond was instead handed a four-year order prohibiting him from using threatening behaviour, begging or entering the grounds of Bedford College.

He had condemned the original terms of the ban, saying: "It's like they're trying to change the way I dress."