Double stabbing thought to be linked to anti-social behaviour and violence at a home in St Alban’s Close, Gravesend
15:00, 06 December 2016
updated: 15:36, 06 December 2016
Two people are in hospital after a stabbing which neighbours believe could be linked to anti-social behaviour and violence in the street.
Emergency services were called to St Alban's Street, Gravesend, last night and a man in in his 40s and a woman in her 30s, were found with severe stab wounds and taken to hospital.
Neighbours believe it could be linked to ongoing anti-social behaviour and violence at a house in St Alban’s Close and said Monday’s incident was “not a surprise”.
Mr Miles, 62, lives next to the scene and said: “I got up and opened by curtains to look when a mate of mine phoned to ask me what was happening outside my home.
“Day in day out you hear a lot of screaming and shouting coming from the flat where the police were, so any noises there tend to go one ear and out the other now, but I hope they are both ok, they’ve always been nice to me.
“There were two ambulances, a first response vehicle, four police cars and a large police van. I saw the blood on the road and just assumed it was a car accident.
“They have four dogs and a friend went in to check on them today. They were gone, but there was blood all over the living room.”
Mr Miles now has pools of blood, bloodied t-shirts and towels, and splatters all over the floor and communal front gate of the property.
But he added: “Blood doesn’t faze me to be honest, I was a sniper and served in the Falklands so I’ve seen far worse than that.”
But it did shock Belinda Moon when she took her daughter to school on Tuesday morning and they had to walk past a huge pool of it in the road.
She said: “I wasn’t surprised when I heard all the commotion last night.
“They come up and down this street all the time screaming at each other, swearing, hitting. I’ve said to my husband in the past we need to call the police.
“They’re always drunk when they argue, always have a bottle in their hand, throwing around accusations and being violent towards each other.”
Her husband Richard Matanawui was unable to leave for work in his job as a chef in London.
“An officer said to me ‘find an alternative route’. I told him, ‘it’s a close’ but he wouldn’t let me through.
“In the end I had to walk through into another street and was luckily was able to borrow a friend’s car.
“The blood should have been cleaned up by police. There are children here and it’s horrible to see.”
Late on Tuesday morning Gravesham council’s deep cleaning service sent two vans to the site to clean the blood from the road after a number of complaints were received.
Another neighbour, who has lived in the area for decades and did not wish to be named described the victims’ home as “a nuthouse”.
“There’s always trouble there, shouting and screaming,” he said. “That’s what happens when you get a council estate and don’t know who’s moving in. There was another stabbing in the close only a couple of years ago.”
The attack is said to have begun outside shops in Arthur Street and then the victims were found collapsed one and a half miles away in St Alban’s Close.
A 33-year-old man from Gravesend had been arrested on suspicion of assault and remains in police custody.
The victims were initially admitted in a critical condition but were later said to be stable and their injuries no longer thought to be life-threatening.
Call police on 01474 366149 quoting 05-1126, or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.