Made prisoners by anti-social yobs (From Bournemouth Echo)

Made prisoners by anti-social yobs

8:00am Friday 12th March 2010 in

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“YOUR home is meant to be a safe place – but it wasn’t. It becomes like a fortress of fear.

“You batten down the hatches. You start thinking – they could burn it down, we could be trapped. What happens if I put the bins out and they bottle me from behind and I’m lying there bleeding – who will find me?”

These are the words of Asher Nardone who suffered years of abuse at her home after moving to Poole’s Rossmore Estate in 2006.

Her car was vandalised, things were thrown at her house and both she and her son were victims of verbal and even physical abuse.

At Christmas 2008 a brick was thrown through their window – smashing a brand-new television and showering glass across the room.

For the mum-of-two, a full-time carer for her severely disabled son, the impact of antisocial behaviour has been devastating. At its worst, she told the Echo she could scarcely sleep or function.

She wouldn’t even go into her own garden after dark for fear of being attacked and kept a knife and a panic alarm by her bed.

Her son was too scared to sleep alone and jumped at every sound, paranoid that a brick would come through his window as he slept.

She said: “Everybody experiences it at some time – that ‘fight or flight’ reaction when your heart is pounding. Multiply that 100 times. I had that feeling all day long for weeks and weeks.”

For months Asher felt “passed around” between the police and other agencies, and became more and more frustrated with a lack of co-ordinated action.

“You get the response team coming out – but it’s always different people. No one is passionate about sorting it out. It’s just another incident, just another call-out.”

“You need somebody to take responsibility in these cases and see it through.”

But, after years of battling for help, Asher said things are now much improved.

Her story has even been filmed by Dorset Police to help officers learn lessons.

“The police force are really trying to be proactive now – they’re really trying to make a difference,” she added.

Linda Mundle, who owns Reel Time arcade in Poole High Street, has also fought for action on antisocial behaviour in her area of Old Town Poole, which she says was plagued with all-day drinkers and drug users whose behaviour left residents and traders “frightened and intimidated”.

“They were coming up to people asking them for money, urinating in public. One woman with her five-year-old saw people with needles in their arms – in the day.

“Old ladies were frightened to go and get fish and chips at 7pm at night. It got worse and worse. We went from a few to groups of 15.

“It was very, very frightening. People didn’t want to come down here any more.”

Linda took a stand. After she gathered a petition a packed public meeting was held, where others came forward.

A police crackdown in the area has now tackled the problem.

Linda added: “It takes one person to stand up to them and everybody in the community comes forward.

“I shouldn’t have had to put myself at risk. Everybody said I was going to be hurt and I was silly, but if I hadn’t done that it would have got worse and worse. You have to stand up to these people.”

Police working hard to protect those at risk DORSET Police receives around 44,000 reports of antisocial behaviour every year, ranging from complaints about youngsters playing football in the street to cases of people being harassed and intimidated. Assistant Chief Consta-ble Mike Glanville said: “We do take antisocial behaviour very seriously. It’s one of our first priorities. “One of the problems is that it covers a wide range of incidents. One of the challenges is to make sure we are properly categorising these incidents, then being in a position to identify repeat victims, locations and vulnerable people.” Mr Glanville stressed that the police worked closely with local authorities, health trusts and social services. “We could do better to provide a more consistent joined-up service, and that’s something we are now working very hard at. “Over the last five or six years, there has been some increase in reports. Everybody has got a mobile phone so it’s quite easy to contact the police and pass on information. Very often, the solution doesn’t lie with the police but with other agencies,” he said. “One person’s antisocial behaviour is someone else’s kids having a good time. Some people might be very intolerant of kids playing football outside their house. Part of our job is trying to identify those incidents that have the biggest impact on people and those individuals who are most at risk.”