Two innocent school pupils were hurt in an unprovoked attack by a man waving around a hammer last month. The first pupil from St Michael’s Catholic High School was waiting to catch the bus home from Garston Park Parade on Wednesday, March 5th, at around 3.45pm when the man approached the boy and began to push and punch him.

A crowd of startled children looked on as the madman punched the child into the road. Staff at Claytons Estate Agents on witnessing the incident, called the police and ran out to help the vulnerable pupil. One of the members of staff at Claytons told My Garston: “I saw the man punch the boy into the road and I ran out and screamed before trying to break it up. We called the police but they took a long time – around 30 or 40 minutes by which time he had started on another boy. I saw that the man had a hammer in his pocket and he started to wave it about threatening people. The staff at Claytons got
the two boys inside and then tried to move some of the children on. “We called the parents of the boys and found another lad outside shaking and crying his eyes out – it turns out he was the younger brother of one of the attacked boys.” I heard the man say to one of the boys, If I see you again I’m going to knife you’.” The man in question simply sat on a nearby wall after the attack before police arrived and arrested him. Deputy Head of the School Gary Power came down to the Parade to deal with the children and thanked the staff at Claytons for their intervention. They later received an official letter from the school along with a card and two boxes of chocolates from the parents of the two school pupils. The staff member in question admitted that it was a scary thing to witness, but all she thought about was breaking it up and keeping the children safe. “All I could think about was that it could have been my two children.” Deputy Head Gary Power was grateful for the help of Claytons’ staff and told My Garston that, after the initial shock, the boys involved are now fine.