When 29 year old Jon Murrow happened across a lone youth being attacked by a 5 strong gang he stepped in to help without thinking of his own safety. He wasn’t thinking of praise or accolades as he did it, he was just selflessly trying to help out somebody in trouble.
“I was on my way to work and saw this lad being set upon. It was in broad daylight and happening right outside of a school where any of the kids could have witnessed it. That’s not the sort of thing we want happening on our streets so without thinking I just went in to help him out. Looking back now I guess it probably was quite dangerous and I was lucky to escape serious injury myself. You read stories about have a go heroes and try to think how you would have acted in their place but never really expect to find yourself in a similar situation, I just did what I thought was the right thing to do at the time.”
What he didn’t expect was the angry response to his actions and a backlash in the local media. He claims that since the incident he has been vilified in the local press, verbally abused in the street and has even been visited by the police to question him about events and inform him that should any of the gang wish to press charges he could be charged with assault or even GBH. This response has left him stunned.
“What was I supposed to do, just walk by and let him get battered? The world’s gone mad.”
Jon’s reaction to the attack was so furious that the assailants, all aged 8 and pupils at the local primary school, were caught by surprise. 2 of them fled to the safety of the school playground while the other 3 took the full force of the attack. They were left needing hospital treatment for their injuries while the victim, thanks to Jon’s intervention, escaped with just some minor bruising where he had been struck by a school bag.
The mother of one of the group said “I understand that my little Tommy shouldn’t have been involved in bullying like this and I can’t condone his actions. But if he felt that he had to break up a fight between a bunch of 8 year old kids surely he could have done it without repeatedly kicking my son in the face?”
The whole incident has left Jon disillusioned with the state of society and feeling like the law comes down on the wrong side “Because of my previous conviction for tackling a dog in the park that I thought was attacking a child and breaking its neck, only to discover that it was playing fetch, I’m facing the possibility of jail for this. Just for trying to help somebody out. And the 5 lads have got off scot free, not even a caution. Where’s the justice in that?”
