Britain’s worst family to spend Xmas in jail . . . including mum!
‘They are feral scumbags’
FOR their neighbours, it was as if all their Christmases had come at once.
Peace and goodwill will finally have a chance to reign in parts of Kent after ‘Britain’s worst family’ was sentenced to spend the festive period in prison.
The heavy- drinking and violent Selwood family have become notorious in their local community for appalling anti-social behaviour and brutality.
But with mother Lesley Selwood, 53, being sent to prison along with her three sons, Darren, 34, Jason, 33, and Lee, 31, respectable citizens in several Kent towns where they hang around can breathe a sigh of relief.
Even the brothers’ aunt, Teresa Cole, 51, is delighted. ‘They are feral scumbags, scum of the earth,’ she said. ‘I hate them with a passion. They are animals. I’m delighted they are behind bars. Merry Christmas to them all.’ A delighted neighbour commented: ‘The Selwoods are a total nightmare. We can finally enjoy the festive season now they are banged up.’
The family have been likened to the Gallaghers in the Channel 4 drama series Shameless. Between them they have a shocking criminal record.
Darren Selwood is the most violent and he became the latest to be locked up when he was jailed for 15 months at Maidstone Crown Court last month after admitting unlawful wounding.
The thug thrust a steak knife into a friend’s stomach in an unprovoked attack at a party. As Selwood was eating a meal, victim Patrick Boylan said to him: ‘Give us a bit of steak.’ Selwood replied, ‘No, but you can have this instead’, and stabbed him. He has 17 previ- ous convictions for 27 offences. They include an attack at a Christmas party in which he knocked a man to the ground and stamped on his head, causing brain damage. He was jailed for five-and-ahalf years in 2008.
And in 2014 he knocked out an 18-year-old girl, fracturing her eye socket, at a nightclub and was locked up for three years. Younger brother Lee and mother Lesley were also jailed last month for fighting in public.
At Canterbury Crown Court, the mother was given six months for affray and her son received 13 months for the same offence and for racially aggravated harassment. The final brother, Jason, is serving seven-and-a-half years for being part of a gang who blew up a bank cash machine with gas canisters and stole £19,000 in 2014.
The family have lived in Tonbridge, Snodland and Maidstone in recent years. Lesley’s sister-inlaw, Teresa Cole, told the Sunday People: ‘The family have moved around so much because they abuse people wherever they go. They are the neighbours from hell. They upset everyone. They slashed our tyres and smashed bricks through our window.’
A mother-of-two who lives in the same street as Mrs Selwood, a widow, said: ‘We are planning to have an estate party to celebrate them being locked up.’