Kids intimidate Finsbury and Brunswick Close estates

Published: 5th November, 2010
by TERRY MESSENGER

A GANG of children and young teenagers have terrorised a neighbourhood of Finsbury, vandalising a museum and making life hell for tenants of two estates.

They have intimidated and screamed abuse at residents of the Finsbury and Brunswick Close estates on either side of St John Street. And at the nearby Islington Museum they smashed up a glass lift for people with disabilities. They also broke glass balcony panels at the museum, which was opened to a fanfare of approval two years ago at a cost of £1million.

The Tribune witnessed them setting upon a worker replacing cycles at a “Boris Bike” docking station outside the Patrick Coman House on the Finsbury estate.

“This used to be a lovely, safe place to live but recently it’s just exploded,” said a member of the Brunswick Tenants’ and Residents’ Association committee.

Patrick Coman House on was the scene of a horrific attack by a “pit-bull type” dog unleashed by thugs on two students last week.

The dog incident came against a background of escalating mayhem at the two estates in the past six weeks caused by a gang of around 20 boys and girls.

Tenants’ committee member Joe, who wanted to be known only by his first name, declared: “People here feel threatened and scared.”

As a Tribune reporter spoke to him on the phone, he said: “They’re outside my flat now. I literally called the police two seconds ago because they’re trying to access the building. Yesterday I called the police on behalf of one of my neighbours. 

“She popped down to get some bread and she buzzed me on the intercom and said ‘they won’t let me go back into my own home’.

“They were blocking her way and abusing her – saying you f****ing cow – that kind of thing.”

He said they broke glass balcony panels at the Islington Museum – using an airgun – as well as smashing up the lift for people with disabilities.

Joe is a particular target of their abuse because he is gay. 

He said: “I had an 11- or 12-year-old girl calling me an ‘effing queer’ and saying to me ‘you can’t do anything to me. Do you want to hit me? You can’t do anything to me because I’m a child’.

“They see me as a victim but what they don’t realise is that I’ve been a victim all my life and I’m not being a victim any more.”

He is planning a tenants’ campaign to deal with the problem.

A Tribune reporter saw the gang surround a “Boris Bike” operative as he replaced cycles on the rack outside Patrick Coman House.

They tried to pull a bike off the man and he had to lunge forward to scare them to get them to back off.

As the operative and his driver drove off, three of them ran into busy St John Street and leapt onto the flat-backed vehicle, forcing the driver to stop for fear they would fall off.

Only after the youths tired of tormenting them were the workers able to leave the scene.

Kerrian Bennett, manager of the Brunswick Tenants Management Organisation, which runs the estate, has called on Homes for Islington to install CCTV cameras.

She said: “We’ve had a lot of youths congregating and making nuisance and giving trouble all the time.

“When it’s winter they come inside the blocks because they want to feel warmer and vandalise the place because we have no cameras.”

Police Sergeant Brian Quail, Clerkenwell Safer Neighbourhoods Team, said: “We have identified a number of people we suspect are responsible for incidents of disorder and other crime in and around Patrick Coman House. 

“We are working with partners at Homes for Islington and Islington Council to take action against these people. If anyone has specific concerns or information about crime or disorder they should contact us on 020 7161 8121.”