Dad’s anger over police response

annoyance, vandalism and anti-social behaviour very seriously, as it does any crime and will carry out inquiries to identify the perpetrators and hold them to account.

“No one

has

been THE FATHER of a Kinross family last night criticised police for their reaction to a gang of “yobs” who “terrorised” them and allegedly shouted racial abuse at his wife.

John Watt (40), of Douglas Crescent, Kinross, told The Courier he thought Tayside Police would help his family after the group of “hoodies” later returned to his property with spray paint and a torch.

Mr Watt caught one of the youths and phoned the police – only for the teenager to run off and drop his mobile phone in a nearby stream.

The householder claims when officers arrived last Monday to investigate the incident, they were more concerned about finding the youth’s mobile phone than helping the distraught family.

The shocking incident has left Mr Watt’s Filipino wife Marie (40) upset and he claims the police should be “held accountable” on how they deal with “yobs who spend their time terrorising decent families” in their communities.

“After a spending the daytime terrorising my wife, a gang of youths aged between 14 to 17 decided to return later in the evening with spray paint and a torch,” Mr Watt said.

“My wife was there with two of our children and these youths were shouting racial abuse at her. There were around five of them.”

He continued: “They returned at night and I caught these youths in my back garden, with spray paint and a torch.

“They were about to use the paint on my shed after breaking in and stealing a Stanley knife and a hammer.

“One of the hoodies tried to escape and, in pursuit of the chase, one of the yobs dropped his mobile phone in a stream.”

Mr Watt said he phoned police to notify them of the incident but claimed he was told he could be in trouble for “kidnapping” .

“The next day, Tayside Police phoned me and to my astonishment they did not provide support but asked us to look for the mobile phone,” he added.

“Even more astonishing, the police had the audacity to chase us on how our search for the yob’s phone was going.

“We are disgusted at how Tayside Police appear only to protect and help yob culture and not the victims of intimidating harassment to which the police are meant to serve to protect.

“Is this the message Tayside Police want to give?

“It seems the police just let these yobs do whatever they want to do. I’m very unhappy with the way the police dealt with this.”

A spokesperson for Tayside Police confirmed that “during an inquiry” into a series of vandalisms in Kinross, they received a report of an incident at an address in Douglas Crescent, Kinross.

“The force treats all reports of youths causing charged at this stage in the inquiry.

“However, there is a positive line of inquiry being followed and police are conf ident that all the vandalism will be detected.”

John Watt, his wife Maria and children Miguel, Carlos and Isobel.