Shock over OAP attack (From Stroud News and Journal)

Shock over OAP attack

A COMMUNITY was in shock this week after a 71-year-old man was attacked just yards from his home.

A group of 14-year-olds, two boys and two girls, were arrested by Stroud police shortly after the incident on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm.

Pensioner Harry Woods, 71, suffered severe chest and head injuries after he was attacked in an alley on the Paganhill Estate just after midnight on Thursday allegedly after being asked for a cigarette paper.

The assault on Mr Woods, a well-known figure who has lived on the estate for more than 40 years, sent shock waves through the community. Neighbour Malcolm Woodward, 50, who has known Mr Woods since childhood, said: "It's absolutely disgusting.

"Harry has been like a father figure to me. He is involved in so many social things around here and he wouldn't harm anybody. It is almost unreal.

"This estate used to be a lovely place to live - now I know three old people who are afraid to go out of the house at night. It is like a nightmare.

He added: "One day someone is going to get killed."

Mr Woods' family expressed their shock and disbelief on Friday, after Harry returned home from Cheltenham General Hospital.

"We are extremely grateful that Harry is on the road to recovery and back home with his family.

"He's up and talking but he's in an awful lot of pain, and quite shaken. But he's glad to be back home.

"We are extremely shocked and disturbed that an elderly man can be attacked in this way.

"As a family we cannot believe something like this has happened to us."

Mr Woods is a member of the Stroud branch of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes, known as the Buffs, a fund raising community group.

He was just on his way back from a meeting of the Buffs at the Rose pub when he was attacked just after midnight.

Pal Brian Gay, a secretary of the Knights Chapter which is a sub-group of the 'Buffs', said: It was a terrible shock to hear what happened to Harry.

You just do not expect something like that to happen in your own backyard."

Julie Zimmer, 39, landlady at The Rose, said: "He is a lovely old gentleman who raised a lot of money for charity. The whole pub was silent on Thursday night."

Barmaid Nicky Hunt, 36, who lives on Paganhill Estate, added: "It is awful - everybody on the street is upset."

Stroud Town Councillor Haydn Sutton, who lives just 400 yards from the scene of the attack, expressed his own anger at the assault.

"He is a lovely chap and it is just a terrible thing to happen," he said. I have a whole list of incidents up there, though this is the first assault."

Mr Woodward has already met with community safety officers from Stroud District Council to ask for extra street lighting in the alley.

Community safety boss Phil Sullivan said the council would undertake public consultation before making any firm plans.

Three of the four teenagers arrested were bailed and will report back to Stroud police station on Friday, July 29. One of the group, a girl, is due to appear at Gloucester Magistrates' Court on Thursday, July 21.

Mother blames social services

THE parents of one of the 14-year-old girls arrested after the attack on pensioner Harry Woods have blamed social services for not doing enough to help them.

The family, who live in Westrip, said the girl has become too much of a handful for them to deal with, constantly running away and bullying her younger siblings.

And they said she was now living with a family they have never met. "We have tried to do everything we possibly can for that girl," said the mother. "It started off around February.

"She kept running away. Social services said to lock all the windows and doors but that is impossible.

"She keeps coming and going. It has just been a nightmare.. "I have told social services I won't be having her back because of what she has done."

The teenager only met her real father two weeks ago and her mother had thought she was living with him in Bedminster when she turned up at their home hours before Thursday's attack.

She is adamant that she has done all she can to try and discipline the girl. "I have tried to ground her but she just runs away," she said.

Social Services were unable to comment by the time the SNJ went to press.