‘A snotty Kent ten-year-old won’t get to me’
Defiance of American ex-cop whose husband was sacked after yobs threatened to rape her:
A FORMER US police officer who was threatened with rape and murder by a group of young British yobs declared last night that she wouldn’t ‘ let a snotty ten-year-old intimidate me’.
Angela Flynn, who faced gunmen and violence on her old beat in Louisiana, also told of her fears that British society could become as lawless as parts of the US.
She spoke out after her husband Michael was sacked from his teaching job for posting on Facebook about an incident in which a gang of youngsters tried to steal a bike from the couple’s front garden and threatened his wife when she confronted them.
Mrs Flynn, 52, who worked for 19 years in US law enforcement, approached the group outside her house in Gillingham, Kent on May 23. One youngster claimed he had a knife and would return with others to ‘murder and rape her’. Last night she said: ‘I wasn’t going to take that lying down so I said to him, “If you’ve got a knife, I hope you know how to use it because you’re going to need it”.
‘During my police career, I was involved in shootouts and other terrifying incidents and I wasn’t going to let a snotty ten-yearold in Kent intimidate me. I shouted at them to get off my property, started walking towards them and then they ran off.’ The next day the same yob returned with other friends and was about to hurl a brick through a window when Mr Flynn, 55, realised that it was one of his pupils, aged ten.
The teacher appealed to the parents of the yobs on Facebook and was sacked by Twydall Primary School for breaching its social media policy. A furious Mrs Flynn, whose disabled daughter lives at home
with the couple, said: ‘If a child steals a bike and the school enables that child by sacking the teacher, what message are you sending out? I saw what happened in America with the way youngsters were allowed to get away with bad behaviour and sadly, Britain is heading that way. Kids are becoming ungovernable, antisocial behaviour is increasing.’
She added: ‘In my experience, crime is an evolutionary process and that has to be challenged. A ten-year-old might be trying to steal a bike today but tomorrow, he could be a 20-year-old who robs your home.’