ELECTION 2010: Hunt for poster ripper with all-party grudge - Detectives launch investigation after vandal spotted smasing Labour and Lib Dem campaign boards

Published: 30 April, 2010

DETECTIVES have launched an investigation after an election poster vandal was spotted smashing Labour and Lib Dem campaign boards.
Labour Party supporter Eamonn O’Tierney confronted the mystery offender on Sunday evening. He had witnessed  a campaign poster being torn down.
It was the fifth time in a week that Mr O’Tierney has had signs in front of his home in Northchurch Road, off Essex Road, knocked over.
Mr O’Tierney, who is registered disabled, said: “At about 8pm, I was on the telephone when I heard a crash... I saw that a man had cut down one of the signs from the railings of my house and had lifted it out of my garden and thrown it into the street.”
The suspect told a passing cyclist, who challenged him, to mind his own business before ripping off a second sign so hard that he tore a welded fence railing adornment.
Mr O’Tierney said: “He then shouted at me, slightly incoherently, but I understood him to say God help ‘us’ from people like me and that if I put this sign up ‘we’ll’ be back, which I took as a threat and an indication he was acting in concert with others. I was really quite rattled.”
The suspect then drove off towards Southgate Road. Mr O’Tierney managed to note his number plate and pass it to police.
The man had been seen tearing down a Lib Dem sign in nearby Elmore Street. Lib Dem councillor Barbara Smith said another of her party’s posters had been taken down in Elizabeth Avenue on Sunday. Tory signs have also been ripped up.
A police spokeswoman confirmed that an allegation of criminal damage was being investigated.