‘Needs to stop’ - Parents issue anti-violence message following a South Shields park attack
Community champion and parent call for action after violent South Shields attack.
A parent and a community champion are calling on youngsters to stop being violent towards each other.
Julie West, from South Shields, and Angie Comerford, the founder of Hebburn Helps, have joined forces to call for children and young people to stop being violent towards others.
It comes after Julie’s 12-year-old daughter, Lilli-Rose, was attacked in South Shields’ West Park - with a video on the incident shared on social media in the aftermath.
The mum-of-five has spoken about how she felt when she found out that Lilli had been assaulted and is now calling on all parents to start questioning their children to ensure they know what they are getting up to when they go out with their friends.
‘I knew it was bad’
The 41-year-old said: “I was very grateful to the young man who brought Lilli home, I couldn’t watch the video but given the reaction of my partner who did watch it, I knew it was bad.
“We weren’t going to involve the police but I felt like we had no choice after he watched it.
“I was absolutely devastated at the state that my daughter came home in and at the moment, I can’t let her go out on her own.
“It isn’t even about being streetwise these days either, you just don’t know what it is going to happen.
“I think as a whole, we as parents need to start questioning our children more and know what they are getting up to but I know we can’t protect them 24/7.
“It doesn’t mean that they have a bad upbringing but some children have no respect for others and there are some parents who don’t see the bad in their kids - that is part of the problem as well.”
Calls for education
In the wake of the attack, Angie reached out to Julie and Lilli-Rose to help them and has used her huge social media platform to call for more education amongst young people over the impact that violence against others can have.
She commented: “At the moment, there seems to be a lot of this kind of thing going around and when I heard about this, I reached out to Julie to try and spread some kindness.
“Being a mam myself, it is just horrific and it needs to stop.
“I’m not blaming parents because you can get some amazing parents whose kids go off the rails and vice-versa but I do feel like some of the responsibility does lie with us as parents.
“I feel like there needs to be more education around this kind of thing, there shouldn’t be violence.
“I think the children involved in incidents like this need to try and think about if it was the other way round and they were the ones being attacked or bullied.
“Young girls especially need to be educated in learning that we are all sisters at the end of the day.
“I’m really proud of both Julie and Lilli for how positive they are being after going through something like this.”
Northumbria Police have confirmed that inquiries are ongoing into the incident in West Park on Monday, April 13.