Teenage thugs film attack on their mobile phones

A TEENAGE girl has been attacked in Minehead by a gang of youths some of whom used their mobile phones to video the assault taking place.
The shocking incident happened as the 16-year-old girl was walking in The Parks area at about 5.15 pm on Thursday, February 1.
She was set upon by a gang of around 15 youths said to be aged between 13 and 16-years-old.
They forced the girl to crawl through mud and repeatedly say: ‘I am Goldilocks, where are my bears?’ while some took humiliating pictures.
It marks a dramatic escalation of anti-social behaviour by the gang, who for some months are said to have engaged in petty vandalism, theft, intimidation, and assaults in the town.
The random attack is also thought to be the first time local youths have adopted the unpleasant practice seen in some urban areas of using their mobile phones to take photographs and film of an assault to show to their friends.
The gang included boys and girls from local schools and the ringleader was said to be a girl pupil of the 24/7@peritonmead special school who was also alleged previously to have used a stiletto heel to attack another girl.
The gang included a number of students from the West Somerset Community College, Minehead, and at least one youngster said to have previously been excluded from the college.
Police confirmed to The Crier that a 16-year-old girl had later been arrested on suspicion of common assault and would be dealt with through the youth court system.
The arrested girl, whose name cannot be revealed because of a law which protects the identity of juvenile criminals, is understood also to have been removed with immediate effect from 24/7@peritonmead.
Staff at 24/7@peritonmead were praised by the parents of the victim of the attack, who has since made a good recovery, for facing up to the situation and taking swift and appropriate action.
However, they were less impressed with the response they received when they spoke with staff of the community college.
The college’s principal, Nick Swann, would not talk to The Crier when we called to ask his views on whether anything could be done about the behaviour of students off the campus.
Mr Swann instead relayed a message through his personal assistant that he ‘is unable to comment on it because he knows nothing about it’.
The manager of 24/7@peritonmead, Craig Fletcher, told The Crier he had nothing to add to what had already been told to the parents.