‘This area is lawless’
RESIDENT WHO HAD ARM BROKEN IN VICIOUS ATTACK SLAMS POLICE AS THUGS CONTINUE TO WALK FREE
A MAN attacked by a gang of vicious thugs as he walked through the grounds of a church has slammed police over their investigation – claiming his town is ‘lawless.’
The gang rained kicks and stamps onto Stuart Allsopp’s body, snapping a bone in the arm he had raised to protect himself from the onslaught, all because he questioned them for calling him a ‘baldy b ***** d.
Four months on, the culprits who attacked Stuart remain at large even though they were captured on CCTV. It took police three weeks to collect the footage.
Stuart is a victim of crime who has been let down, among those to whom the new chief constable of GMP Stephen Watson has offered his ‘personal apology’ as he tries to turn around a force which remains in special measures.
Last month, GMP had to defend a second damning report from the police inspectorate in ten months, the first one ending in the exit of the then chief constable Ian Hopkins.
The second report said GMP was ‘failing to respond to calls from the public’ while there remain ‘significant delays’ in responding to incidents involving vulnerable people, with some waiting over a week for a response that should be undertaken in less than an hour and others getting none at all. It’s a familiar story Stuart recognises. The attack on Stuart, 48, happened as he was walking through Holy Trinity Church in Waterhead, Oldham, after he was verbally abused by a gang of teenagers at about 9.30pm on June 8.
They called him a range of vile names before one of them threw a missile, possibly a stone, which just missed his head.
Stuart asked them ‘what the hell are you doing?’ and the gang launched a vicious assault, first punching him until he fell to the ground and then repeatedly kicking and stamping on him. As his £900 Huawei P30 Pro phone fell from his hand, one of the gang smashed it by stamping on it.
He raised his hands to protect himself but the attack was so violent he broke a bone in his left arm.
Stuart heard one of his attackers say ‘it’s enough’ and the gang fled.
He staggered into the parish hall where a line-dancing class was underway and someone dialled 999.
Stuart was taken to Royal Oldham Hospital and later underwent surgery to insert a metal plate to pin together his snapped ulnar bone.
Concerned he had not been contacted by cops, he went into Oldham police station about two days after the attack for an update to the investigation. He said an officer told him there was no update as they had been waiting for him to confirm how serious his injury was.
The lack of progress prompted Stuart to make his own enquiries, and he went to Holy Trinity Church to establish if there was any CCTV.
When the vicar confirmed there was, he informed police but it was 23 days after the attack when he learned from the reverend they had finally come to the church to collect the footage.
Stuart had decided not to view the footage at first in case it jeopardised the police investigation, including any invitation to a video identification parade.
But when there was still no progress he decided to have a look and, although it did not capture the actual assault, he says the CCTV shows the faces of three young men who attacked him.
The footage, seen by the M.E.N., shows three boys, with a clear view of their faces and clothing, walking by the church hall around the time of the attack.
Stuart became so exasperated he wrote to his Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Debbie Abrahams, who contacted the force.
GMP told the MP that the CCTV images had been uploaded onto their digital imaging database where officers could view stills of the suspects. This detail had not been shared with Stuart himself.
A Pc ‘continues to investigate this assault,’ the force told Ms Abrahams.
Stuart called the M.E.N. in desperation at the lack of progress, especially as he believes the same youths attacked someone else two days after the assault on him.
He said: “The attack was absolutely disgusting.
“They did it because they know they can get away with it.
“That’s why they attacked somebody else in the park two days later. If the police aren’t dealing with somebody who’s had their arm broken in an assault, it makes you wonder what they actually are dealing with.
“It took them 23 days to get the footage. I have absolutely no faith
in the police whatsoever. I know they have had cuts but they simply don’t deal with crime. What has to happen for the police to actually deal with these things?
“If it was just verbal abuse I could understand it, but they broke someone’s arm. This area is lawless.
“Everybody knows who is committing crime around here. It’s young lads aged 15 or 16 who do what they want because they are getting away with it.
“People around here are fed up with it and people are talking about protecting themselves if the police aren’t going to do it.”