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Windscreens and wing mirrors smashed in gang rampage in Gravesend

00:01, 12 August 2016

A group of youths allegedly armed with a knife went on a post-party rampage, smashing people’s wing mirrors and windscreens for a laugh.

A number of cars were damaged in Gravesend when a group of 10 to 15 people, believed to be teenagers, ran amok. Some wing mirrors were smashed, and a wooden pallet was kicked at a van, smashing the windscreen.

There had been a party that night in Valley Drive and it is thought the culprits were leaving there after being refused entry.

The damage to Daniel McKee's car
The damage to Daniel McKee's car

Posting on Facebook group “Gravesenders, people and places” Maureen Chapman said it was her daughter’s 18th party and there had been issues with a gang of unwelcome boys.

She said: “Trouble erupted when they were turned away and they pulled a knife.”

She added: “The boys responsible were riding bikes and most had their faces hidden and headed off down Valley Drive in a crowd of 15-plus.”

Daniel McKee heard a disturbance in the early hours of Sunday when what is believed to be the same group came shouting and smashing their way down Valley Drive, into his street – St Aidan’s Way – and then St Gregory’s Crescent.

The 35-year-old father and local government officer said: “I woke up and saw them outside the house. Our car was parked on the road. It sounded like they were playing a game and were smashing the wing mirrors for points.

“Some were smashed off. Ours was left hanging by a wire, others had the plastic backing cracked.

“I called the police, but they’d already been informed by someone else, and just after that two police cars drove past looking for them.”

The noise also woke his wife Helen who said: “We do get a lot of kids walking up and down this road. Sometimes they can be a bit loud, but criminal damage is a whole other issue.”

Neighbour Ruth Hudd, who has lived in the road for about 13 years, said: “There’s a lot of older people living in this street, it’s normally nice and quiet.

A car on St Aidan's Way, Gravesend, that has been keyed
A car on St Aidan's Way, Gravesend, that has been keyed

“We heard the group coming up the road and Dan shouting at them. I saw them hit his car and shout ‘10 points’, and I shouted out at them as well, ‘are you going to do mine as well for another 10 points?’ but they didn’t hit ours.

“We’d folded our wing mirrors in so I suppose we weren’t such an easy target.

“Then they kicked a big pallet outside one of the houses further up the road and it smashed the windscreen of a van.”

A police spokesman said: “We were called at 1.03am on Sunday, August 7 to a report that a group of young people were acting in an anti-social manner and damaging cars in the Valley Drive area of Gravesend.

“The group dispersed upon police arrival and officers carried out inquiries to locate the owners of four vehicles that had been damaged.”

Speaking on the Gravesenders Facebook group Nicolle Hart added: “There was lots of drunken young youths about. A couple walked past my house and threw a bottle at the back of my car and it smashed all over our drive.”

It is going to cost the McKee family about £200 to replace their wing mirror and it is not the first time they, and others, have had cars vandalised.

Mr McKee said he was also a victim over a year ago when people were taking exhausts and catalytic converters from cars.

Another resident, Steven Raggett, said he had spent hundreds on his car over the years because his wing mirrors had been broken off a few times.

Police arrested two men
Police arrested two men

One woman whose car was vandalised earlier this summer knows exactly how the latest victims are feeling, but conceded it was reassuring hers was not a personal attack.

At the end of May, the mum realised her car had been keyed all the way down the side during the morning school run.

She said: “We get kids down this road all the time as a cut through to various schools. The police asked me lots of horrible questions, about if I’d had any grief with anyone.

“At the time I had a two-month-old baby, I’m not going to be getting into fights with people.

“No one else’s was damaged that day, but given all this, I think my car was just a chancer.”

She was quoted £400 to fix the damage, but has not had the repairs carried out.

“It’s a lot of money, and when the car is kept on the road I don’t want to pay for it to be fixed, for it to just be damaged again.

“It has got to be kids, I can’t imagine an adult who drives and has an idea of how much these things cost would do something like that.

“We never used to have any problems, but things have got worse in the last year or so.

“We didn’t hear the commotion on Saturday night, but we were both tired after being up early with our little boy.”

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