St Albans mum calls for more police in Verulamium Park

Kate Leather, 47, says her objective now is to prevent this happening to someone else. 

The teenage boy was in the park, in the field opposite Waitrose, with his two friends in the afternoon when another boy on a bike approached them and accused them of staring at him. 

When Kate’s son replied saying he wasn’t staring, the boy on the bike said “don’t make me back it out” which supposedly means “don’t make me get my knife out”. 

A few moments later, a group of ten boys came back and repeatedly kicked Kate’s son in the head while filming it.  

The mother-of-two said she’d heard the video has been shared on Snapchat. 

The group of boys who attacked her son also stole his card and cash and the card was later found to be used in North West London. 

Since the attack, a lot of people have contacted Kate saying they’d heard of other attacks in the park as well as bike thefts. 

She said: “It’s disturbing knowing that a gang is going around doing whatever they want and will happily kick a child in the head – it’s very concerning. 

“It highlights the need for more police presence.” 

Kate added: “As the mother of this child, who’s head was used as a football by 10 older lads, I urge you to fill in this form requesting a police presence in this park.  

“There are currently no routine patrols, despite this group causing chaos and terrifying younger kids with unprovoked attacks over the last few weeks. 

“My son was lucky that he didn’t sustain life threatening injuries from this assault, their next victim might not be so fortunate.” 

Following the attack which happened at around 4.30pm on Monday June 14, Hertfordshire constabulary released a statement saying: “Regular patrols have been put in place for every evening for the next two weeks and this will be reviewed going forwards.” 

Kate says her son is a resilient boy and is doing ok so far and luckily has very supportive friends and family around him. 

To request more police presence click here.