Vince Cable

Vincent Cable, MP, has raised with the borough commander the case of 4 Teddington teenagers - 2 boys; 2 girls - who were set upon and violently assaulted in Hampton Wick last week by a group of (six) youths unknown to them. While one of the boys was being beaten up as he protected a girl from assault in an alley, his friend called '999' on his mobile phone and appealed for immediate help. The operator however put him on hold and no police officers responded until after the attack was over. Eventually the police did turn up in response to emergency calls from nearby residents.

To add insult to injury, the following day when the boys and their parents contacted the police to follow up the assault they were kept waiting for long periods on the police advice line.

Vincent Cable said: "this is a shocking story. The police themselves acknowledge that their telephone communications in Twickenham are very poor and they promise improvements next year. But there is something seriously wrong if the public cannot even get a response to urgent 999 calls. If one of the teenagers had been badly hurt, there would be cause for a full enquiry into the unsatisfactory police response. But, even now, their families deserve a proper explanation and apology and we all need reassurance that this will not happen again".