Man killed by gang 'as he set up Neighbourhood Watch'

Aug 13 2007 by Haydon Wood, Liverpool Daily Post

A MAN killed after tackling vandals on his street may have been trying to set up a Neighbourhood Watch scheme after being plagued by thugs, residents said last night.

The 57-year-old victim, a family man with children, was attacked by up to eight youths outside his house in Warrington on Friday night.

He is understood to have gone outside his home to tackle the teenagers who may have been damaging his car.

It is then he was attacked.

Cheshire Police have launched a murder inquiry and six young males, aged 15 to 19, are in custody.

Neighbours said the tree-lined street in the Fernhead area of the town had been plagued by anti-social behaviour for years.

One said he understood the victim may be the same man who had tried to set up the Neighbourhood Watch scheme after suffering yob behaviour in the past.

Another neighbour gave emergency first aid with the victim’s “hysterical” family nursing him on the pavement until an ambulance arrived.

He was rushed to Warrington General Hospital following the incident around 10.45pm on Friday, but lost his fight for life at 2pm on Sunday with his family at his bedside.

Cheshire Police have not named the victim as they say not all next of kin have been informed. Relatives of the victim gathered at the family home, a newly-built detached house on Station Road North, but were too upset to speak last night.

The house is next to a road bridge which had become a “focal point” for youths to congregate.

Andrew Brocklehurst, 20, said: “I was on my laptop and I heard some shouting in the street. I looked out of the window to see him on the floor with people around him nursing him.

“By the time I got downstairs and outside, police and an ambulance were already here. I heard reports someone had kicked his car and he had gone out and tried to move them on and, as far as I know, that’s when they attacked him.

“It’s a shock, it really is. It’s not such a bad area and this is just a guy trying to defend his own property.

“They are animals, they are just scum, really. I can’t understand how anyone could do anything like that.”

A Cheshire Police spokeswoman said: “Additional patrols are now working in the community and officers are keen to speak to anyone who may have witnessed the incident.”