'Hoodies' brought terror to our quiet night out

We hadn't been there before as we are both new to the area, having moved into a new property nearby at the end of November.

I am born and bred in Bolton, whereas my boyfriend is from Hertfordshire and has just moved up to the 'friendly' North since we met while backpacking in Australia almost two years ago. We are both in our mid 20s.

As soon as we left the pub on foot we were harrassed and intimidated by a group of about seven youths.

No sooner had we begun our walk home we had stones thrown at us by this group of all male teenagers who were dressed in hoodies and carrying bottles, which they eventually threw at us too.

My boyfriend turned around on a couple of occasions, anxious to protect me, and asked them what they were playing at. But after shouting obscenities at us they ran off as my boyfriend moved towards them.

However, as we turned and continued on our way, so did they, continuing to throw stones and bottles at us.

Trying not to rise to the bait we continued our walk, anxious to get home. I pleaded with my boyfriend not to keep turning around as this was feeding them the attention that they wanted.

It was only when we got to the mini roundabout on Croft Lane, between the Roach Bank Inn and Manchester Road, that my boyfriend turned around again because we heard a bottle break next to us and we could hear footsteps behind us. It was at this point that three people across the road (two guys and a girl in their 20s) motioned for us to cross the road and come over to them. Turning around to do this we were confronted by one of these youths who had his hood up and was walking up to us very quickly.

He had his arm held behind in his back in a disturbing manner. I stepped in front of my boyfriend fearing the worst, as I didn't think that a kid would harm a fully grown woman.

I asked him what he had behind his back. He simply smirked at me and told me to get out the way. At this point one of his hooded friends came running up and pulled him away, saying 'Leave it, they haven't done anything' while at the same time the three adults on the other side of the road were still motioning us to cross over to them, which we did. At this point the gang threw another bottle at us, narrowly missing one of the three strangers we had joined, who told us that they had watched this boy walking quickly towards us with a metal object behind his back. We ordered a taxi from this same street as none of us felt safe to walk home.

As we were waiting for our taxi we saw the same gang of youths reappear further down the road by The Roache where we had originally seen them. They had abviously cut through the streets so as not to have to pass all five of us standing on the road waiting for our taxi.

I was furious at this point as we had had such a lovely quiet night, in what we thought would become one of our locals and so annoyed that a group of bored, anti-social yobs could have such effect on anybody. At this point I saw a police car driving down the road towards us so I stuck my hand out to flag it down as the youths were still in sight.

I briefly explained what had happened generally, as I knew they would be busy with it being a Friday night. I pointed to the youths and they said they would go and have a word. The police car turned around and drove down to the youths but didn't stop and then turned right and drove off. We waited for our taxi for a further 10 minutes with the gang in sight and didn't see the police car return.

Now this isn't my real complaint, as the daughter of both a police constable and WPC, I am all too aware that Friday nights can be busy for the police, especially at pub closing times.

What I am most incensed at is that this could happen at all. In the week when Tony Blair announced his 'Respect Agenda' policy on anti-social behaviour by youths on the street, I am unable to walk home from my local pub after a quiet night out with my boyfriend. This could still happen to others, as I'm sure, come this Friday night, they will be out doing the same thing.

I do have to ask myself why on earth a group of teenagers are allowed to roam the streets at almost midnight?

What do their parents think they are up to?

Thank God the three strangers on the other side of the road led us to safety, so to speak. I dread to think how far things could have gone. Who knows what frame of mind that boy was in to walk up to two complete strangers with a metal bar behind his back.

My main reason for writing is because the thought of anybody else having to go through what we did would be awful.

If it highlights the area as a problem or it makes one police car drive past every couple of hours to rid Croft Lane of this gang then it is better than nothing.

Name and address

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