GROUP OF TEENAGERS THREATENED BY LOCAL RESIDENT
Children and teenagers left in fear after neighbourhood resident allegedly threatens them for riding bicycles on the areas roads.
Just last night, police swept into Epping’s Mowbray Close residence after a phone call was made from a group of teenagers - roughly 15 years old - claiming that an attempt had just been made by a member of the neighbourhood to hit the group with his car, after startling them with a sharp beeping car horn which caused one of the riders to fall from his bicycle. Upon asking one of teenagers (who preferred to stay anonymous), he informed us that “he went back inside his house for a few minutes and then came out and started getting in my face and threatening to attack me”.
Upon arrival, the police were shown footage taken first hand by one of the teenagers who was equipped with a camera on which he records his friends bicycle tricks. The police then proceeded to attempt to knock on the residents door but were met with no success of an answer. We asked a local mother of two Claire Edwards on her opinions on the children riding in the area, and she told us “I have absolutely no problem with those kids riding around here. I often see them riding around here from my kitchen window and they do no harm to the neighbourhood whatsoever, and are always polite and swift to move their bikes whenever anyone is trying to come through”. The anonymous rider we interviewed added “we only ride here because a few of us live around here, and it is quiet and keeps us away from the main roads which are far too dangerous to ride our bikes on, otherwise we have nowhere else to go”.
The group swiftly departed for home upon the exit of the police, but it is harrowing to think that these children who are simply seeking a safe place for leisure are ending up in just as much danger when they seem to be causing no trouble whatsoever.
By Kai Melhuish.
